Filters - What Would Be A Good Starting Place

[sleaver]

I'm thinking of asking for some filter for Christmas, but just wanted some advice on what would be a good start.

I'm thinking of either Lee or Cokin but I have a feeling that the Lee ones may be pushing it a bit far cost wise. Also with the Cokin range would the P series be a good bet? If so would it be a problem if I ended up with a 10-20 lens as I have heard that you need to make sure the filter is big enough?

After the make is sorted would would be a good set of filters to start with? Such as how many stops on the filter and if grad filters, hard or soft?

If I have different sized threads on lenses, is that just solved by adapter rings?

[Ballgirl]

Originally Posted by sleaver

I'm thinking of asking for some filter for Christmas, but just wanted some advice on what would be a good start.

I'm thinking of either Lee or Cokin but I have a feeling that the Lee ones may be pushing it a bit far cost wise. Also with the Cokin range would the P series be a good bet? If so would it be a problem if I ended up with a 10-20 lens as I have heard that you need to make sure the filter is big enough?

After the make is sorted would would be a good set of filters to start with? Such as how many stops on the filter and if grad filters, hard or soft?

If I have different sized threads on lenses, is that just solved by adapter rings?

I believe you can get a wide angle adapter for the Cokin P series or a bit of DIY on the normal holder allows it to be used with a 10-20.

[allymac123]

From everything I've heard any one that bought Cokin and gives them a reasonable bit of use wishes they'd bought Lee's. Everyone that has Lee's is either glad they did or annoyed they wasted money on the Cokin's in the first place.

Yeah the thread sizes are sorted by adaptor rings. I'd probably say soft grads are easier to use in the first place. And I've heard the 2stop is the most used.

[SAuchterlonie]

I've just been through the same mine field as your going through now, but I always like to buy once even if the price pretty high.

I'm currently using a Canon 24-70L and decided to go for the "Lee Wide Filter Adapter" with the "Lee Filter Holder". Most pleased with the build quality and the little pouch that they come with.

I decided not to get the Lee filters though.....and went with the highly recommended "Hitech" filters. I did a lot of looking around on the net, forums and talking to distributors and decided to go for these which are half the price, but still not cheap!

Price comparison:

Lee GND £44+vat
Hitech GND £29+vat

This adds up when you think you might end up with 6 to 9 filters. (3ND, 3SoftGND, 3HardGND)

In the end I got the Lee holder and adapter(as above) and a set of 3 hard GND with a Lee soft cleaning cloth/pouch for the grand total of £158!!

Simon

[cedmondson]

I had Cokin P filters until about 6 months ago when I sold them and bought Lee.
I had two main issues with Cokin:-

Firstly P isn't really big enough for a UWA even with the WA adaptor. With my Tokina 12-24, the filter holder became visible in frame from around 14mm onwards.

Secondly there's a very slight colour cast with Cokin ND Grads. I actually tersted this by shooting a grey card with and without the filters and measured the RGB values across the frame. The variation was slightly less than 2% - if you don't do any PP you might not notice it, but even a fairly modest boost to saturation (for example) can amplify it and give a magenta tint to parts of the image.

If you can live with those issues, then the Cokin P stuff is clearly dramatically cheaper. I also briefly considered Cokin Z-Pro (which would have solved the vignetting problem but not the colour cast) but you're getting close to Lee territory pricewise so it's not really worth it IMHO.

Both systems can fit different sized lenses with the addition of (inexpensive) adaptor rings. I'd say don't bother with 1 stop grads & get soft grads unless you'll mainly be shooting with a very level horizon (eg seascapes).

[SAuchterlonie]

Doh!

I knew there was something else I forgot to mention....I too noticed the magenta colour cast and hence got rid of my second hand Corkin's.

Simon

[sleaver]

So it seems like Lee is the way to go. It may be more expensive, but if I went for Cokin and found it wasn't for me it would cost even more.

So would this be a good starting place?

Lee Digital SLR Starter Kit

Or if not what should I be looking at?

[RobDickinson]

Lee is very pricey.

Sure a 2% colour cast isnt great, (BTW you can buy non cokin P filters...) but Lee is well expensive.

If you sell your pics , have oodles of cash, or use filters all day every day then get Lee.

I'm happy with my cokin P even using a 10-20.

[SAuchterlonie]

I'd go with the Lee holder and adapter rings, but I would think/read/ask about which filters people use most and go for them instead of just getting the two they give you. You might find they are not what your want and never use them.

Like I said before have a look around at the Hitech ones and read up on the Lee ones too.

Simon.