New Lee filter arrived

[Tobers]

I dont know what it is about Lee filters, but I really like them. It's something about their quality I think. The holder and filters themselves are just so well made. I never really got on with the Cokin P filters due to the odd colour cast they gave to long exposures. Also the Cokin P holder kept getting in the frame with the 10-20 Sigma lens.

I have a Lee 0.6 ND grad and a graduated warm-up filter which came with the "Foundation Kit". I was missing a straight (non-graduated) ND filter and yesterday ordered a 0.9 glass ND which arrived today.

Ooooh it's just lovely. 100mm square glass with some sort of fancy coating and really top quality. No colour casts or other strangeness apparently (still to be tested).

£82 for it inc VAT & delivery. Pricey but it came with a cool pouch thingy and a lovely Lee cleaning cloth which are just great for cleaning any camera gear. Worth it I reckon.

So there you go...Lee Filters. Make your life complete

[onefivenine]

Should be worth every penny.

I'm not sure I'll keep the Cokin grads - due to them being grey and not neutral - maybe one for the Trade Descriptions Act?

I've also read that Hi Tech filters are also a good alternative with no colour cast, and fit the Cokin P series holders (85mm). They seem to be highly recommended on other forums.

Edit: found their link £30 a pop from the manufacturer.

[springtide]

Originally Posted by Tobers

I dont know what it is about Lee filters, but I really like them. It's something about their quality I think. The holder and filters themselves are just so well made. I never really got on with the Cokin P filters due to the odd colour cast they gave to long exposures. Also the Cokin P holder kept getting in the frame with the 10-20 Sigma lens.

I have a Lee 0.6 ND grad and a graduated warm-up filter which came with the "Foundation Kit". I was missing a straight (non-graduated) ND filter and yesterday ordered a 0.9 glass ND which arrived today.

Ooooh it's just lovely. 100mm square glass with some sort of fancy coating and really top quality. No colour casts or other strangeness apparently (still to be tested).

£82 for it inc VAT & delivery. Pricey but it came with a cool pouch thingy and a lovely Lee cleaning cloth which are just great for cleaning any camera gear. Worth it I reckon.

So there you go...Lee Filters. Make your life complete

Welcome to the Lee club

Once you have got over the cost of this initial outlay, next will be a full set of grads and a CIR POL option. What I did find was 2 stop isn't really enough for sunrise/sunsets. You need about 4 stops I think.

I have exactly the same as you, but have added a full set of soft grads (to add to the 0.6 hard) and the Lee square CIL POL (with the "upgrade kit") - although not sure this is the best option.

What you might want to add is a couple of additional slots to the foundation kit, when you get more filters. Cost about £2/slot I think - Robert White.
Also the 10 filter holder is a must when you get more filters. As is the Lee Cleaning fluid.

I've not really used the Coral Grad, but will be very interested in what you use it for. There also a few "Kood" 100mm filters on EBay. Might be worth a try for the "coloured" filters.

[Tobers]

I've used the coral grad upsidedown to warm up the foreground, with an ND grad the right way up to take the sky down. Works quite well (but can be replicated in Photoshop sort of).

I've found 0.6 isn't quite enough either, but it's OK for now.

[onefivenine]

Originally Posted by springtide

What I did find was 2 stop isn't really enough for sunrise/sunsets. You need about 4 stops I think.

That's because you actualy want a reverse ND grad for these scenes - since the brightest light is passing through the least filtered area of your normal ND grads.

Mine is currently at the Parcelforce International Hub... about to have customs charges slapped on it no doubt.

Edit: Bugger!

13-03-2008 21:47 International Hub AWAITING CUSTOMS CHARGING
13-03-2008 21:47 International Hub AWAITING CUSTOMS CHARGES
12-03-2008 00:13 International Hub Arrived in destination country
06-03-2008 13:54 CAPE ISC MIAMI FL (USPS) Left origin country
05-03-2008 06:02 Delivery Agent - UNITED STATES AMERICA Collected from cu

[springtide]

Originally Posted by onefivenine

That's because you actualy want a reverse ND grad for these scenes - since the brightest light is passing through the least filtered area of your normal ND grads.

Mine is currently at the Parcelforce International Hub... about to have customs charges slapped on it no doubt.

Edit: Bugger!

13-03-2008 21:47 International Hub AWAITING CUSTOMS CHARGING
13-03-2008 21:47 International Hub AWAITING CUSTOMS CHARGES
12-03-2008 00:13 International Hub Arrived in destination country
06-03-2008 13:54 CAPE ISC MIAMI FL (USPS) Left origin country
05-03-2008 06:02 Delivery Agent - UNITED STATES AMERICA Collected from cu

I did see your post and have noted the existence of reverse grads

But having just spent an additional £350 on top of my initial £250 "Lee purchase", I decided to pretend that they just don't exist at this point in time I will be very interested in the results/feedback though!
They did look rather expensive! BTW, What did you get?

And is a 3 stop, 3 stops max in the "middle"?

[onefivenine]

Originally Posted by springtide

I did see your post and have noted the existence of reverse grads

But having just spent an additional £350 on top of my initial £250 "Lee purchase", I decided to pretend that they just don't exist at this point in time I will be very interested in the results/feedback though!
They did look rather expensive! BTW, What did you get?

And is a 3 stop, 3 stops max in the "middle"?

I think you're definitely paying for top quality with the Lee filters. I'm sure they are worth it too. Even more so if you stack them - the quality will really show then.

I went for a 3 stop reverse ND, and yes, it is 3 stops in the middle, fading out to the top.
Costs about $160 incl P&P for a P series size... plus whatever customs I get lumbered with. (Can't figure out a way round that but if you have friends or rellies in the states then )

Pricey, yeah, it's a real pity Singh-Ray have no outlets in the UK .
I wonder if Kerso might be up for importing them... must enquire.
Hmmm

[h4rri]

I'm looking at losing all my Cokin stuff and going Lee at some point. Yep it's expensive but I think the quality is worth it, I've found myself not using them much lately though but then I haven't used any of the kit much lately

[Tobers]

These guys are good for Lee Filters. Cant see a reverse ND grad in there though.

http://www.morco.uk.com/latest/leeresin.htm

[onefivenine]

Originally Posted by Tobers

These guys are good for Lee Filters. Cant see a reverse ND grad in there though.

http://www.morco.uk.com/latest/leeresin.htm

As far as I know only Singh-Ray make Reverse ND Grads. I had a good scour around the net before I ordered their one.
Worse still they have no UK retailers - online or otherwise!

[springtide]

Originally Posted by onefivenine

I think you're definitely paying for top quality with the Lee filters. I'm sure they are worth it too. Even more so if you stack them - the quality will really show then.

I went for a 3 stop reverse ND, and yes, it is 3 stops in the middle, fading out to the top.
Costs about $160 incl P&P for a P series size... plus whatever customs I get lumbered with. (Can't figure out a way round that but if you have friends or rellies in the states then )

Pricey, yeah, it's a real pity Singh-Ray have no outlets in the UK .
I wonder if Kerso might be up for importing them... must enquire.
Hmmm

The 6x4 (100x150 - Lee) 3 stop Singh-Ray "Reverse Grads" are an additional $70 over the P series. So, I guess $230 for a single Grad

I have a friend with the Cokin P Series ND's, and they always give that purple cast with long exposures. Not ideal really.

I put off getting the Lee's for ages, but don't regret getting them. Hopefully I'll have these for years and years

BTW, was it you who has one of those (adjustable) Singh-Ray ND/CIL POL filters? If so, what are they like?

[onefivenine]

I'm considering a move to Lee but like you've spotted, the extra $70 for a 100mm grad filter will probably make me keep hold of the P series holder.

I'm just wondering what will happen when I go FF. At what focal length will I start to get vignetting using a P series wide angle adapter... any ideas?

I don't have the Vari ND filter - is that the one you mean? Must admit it's on my wish list! Also tempted by their colour combo filter.

The other singh-ray I do have, and posted about, is a Gold 'n' Blue Polarizer which I really like.

Looking forward to getting out in the lighter evenings with these.

I don't like to think about how much more money all these filters add to the hobby. They're like hidden costs!

But I justify the singh-ray purchases as I use money earned in US$ from stock sales and they accept paypal - so it's easy come, easy go for me

[h4rri]

It depends on the holder & lens you use, I was seeing vigentting until around 25mm on the 17-40 but the 24-70 doesn't appear to suffer from it. The answer is to go with the Cokin Z range [IIRC] which is the wide angle version of get a spare holder and take a dremel to it. I've noticed it allows you to stack 3 or 4 filters but I've never done this so was considering 'losing' the additional slots to help in the vignetting.

[dazza74]

Sounds a nice filter "Tobers" I'd be really interested in seeing a before and after pic if anyone has one using one of these lee filters, I'd almost certainly go down the lee filter route if I bought into a filter system.

[springtide]

With the Lee and my Tam 11-18 I don't get any vig at 11mm APS-C (so, FF 16.5mm).

One thing to note is it does depend on the lens also (and not related to the focal length). Wide Angle Lenses with larger diameter filter threads of the same focal length will be better (obviously makes sense)

Also worth noting is using Grads with CIR POL's. Some solutions are better than others, but non I have found are ideal. Problem is you need more than one holder to get the most flexability - unless you want to change the number of slots when you are out.

@dazza74:

I don't have a before and after, but do have a "simulated" version at:-

http://www.dynaxdigital.com/index.php?page=18

The original photo was taken with a 2 stop ND Grad and an additional "2 stop ND Grad" is applied in Photoshop using layer masks.
Take a look at the foregroud exposure to see how "burned out" the sky is, and this was with a ND Grad. Obviously this photo needed a 4 stop ND, but I didn't have one at the time.

So without the ND Grad, the exposure would have either been:-

* -2 stops for the foreground for the Sky exposure,
* +2 stops for the sky in the foreground exposure.

Not sure if that helps...