suggestion on GND filter for beginner

<p>I want to buy my first graduate neutral density filter. I am not sure whether I like it or not, so I can only affort a cheap one. Two questions here:<br>

1. If I just want to buy one GND filter, which type and brand do you recommend?<br>

2. I should buy a square handheld filter or a screw-on filter which fit the lens<br>

thanks for your help!</p>

<p>I think the problem with the low end GDN filters is they tend to NOT be neutral. You don't want the filter changing the basic color of your shot. </p>

<p>As for what filter type, I think it depends on the lens you put it on. A wide angle lens will probably show the filter holder of the square type, but not a simpler screw on round one. If you have a medium to longer lens, the square type I think gives more versatility, as you can adjust it up and down, to try to match the line you wish to reduce the brightness. The screw on type are set where they are, and you need to recompose the shot to make the line of the filter line up with the scene. The screw on is probably faster to work with. The square, probably better if you have the time to carefully set up the shot.</p>

<p>I just bought a Tiffen, 62mm for about $40, at Adorama. I'll let you know how it works in a few weeks.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>For a 1 filter does all you could probably be best served with a 2 stop (.6) soft edge filter for wide angle or a 2 stop hard edge filter for normal or tele lenses..The inexpensive rectangle models are Hitech or Cokin. Probably Hitech is a little better than Cokin, they are made of a plastic or resign material and will scratch up if you are not careful.. They come with holders that you can buy and you cannot use your lens shade when using these filters. You can also just hold them with your fingers especially if you are also using a tripod. The good side to them is you can adjust the transition line up or down for the image at hand. The screw on ND grad filters do not allow for the transition line to be adjusted other than by adjusting your framing. The screw on filters work like a circular polarizer in that they screw on the lens and then you can rotate them to adjust the graduation to level out with the horizon or whatever you are trying to stop down a bit. You can use your sunshade with this type. Tiffen is probably the least expensive. These filters are kind of thick and will cause vignetting with the real wide lenses such as a 12-24mm DX type lens. The screw on filters are hands down of lesser popularity. The rectangular filters that are made of glass can cost more than your lens that you are using. </p>

<p> Lee, 4x6, you will need 3 for to cover 90% of your landscape situations: .9 Hard, .9 soft, (.9 =facing the sun) .6hard (.6=sun at your back). No vignetting to 24mm fx.<br>

Google "using gnd filters" (spell it out), " kahkityoong" .. he's written several articles. go to www.singhray.com. You'll appreciate their Reverse GND after reading the other sites first. Unfortunately, I have the websites on another computer, but you'll get there by googling. You will learn how/where/when, & what you'll need, from these sites.<br>

Read enough and you'll understand why I recc Lee. Unfortunately, There is no 1 starter filter, as the ring, holder is a major outlay to begin with, and you will need at least those 3 to cover 90% of your landscape situations.</p>

<p>For either a beginner or an advanced photographer I would not recommend a cheaper ND grad like Cokin because as John pointed out, the cheaper filters will add a slight bluish / purple hue instead of being truly neutral in their colour reproduction. </p>

<p>I recommend you save your money until you can afford either the Lee system or Sing Ray. (I use Lee ND grads) Thread on ND grads may work well but they will be limiting in the way you can split your clear and neutralised sections of the image because the graduation on one of those thread filters is fixed, unlike the versatility of flat resin filters in a holder which allow the graduation to be adjusted up and down and even on a diagonal to suit the scene you are shooting.</p>

<p>If you begin with just one filter I'd go with a 0.6 hard edge Lee ND grad. (2 stop)</p>

<p>Xiaoyuan, <br>

if you want to go the cheap route I recommend the Cokin-system. For some years I've used Heliopan graduated ND-filters - the screw-on-ones with 1 or 2 stops density. They proofed to be optically decent but I was never satisfied with the limited adjustability.<br>

Some weeks ago I purchased a set of Cokins and I'm really impressed. I was sceptical at first because of the not-so-stellar reputation of the „plastic“ filters but the doubts are gone. If I was shooting landscapes on a frequent basis I would probably have invested in some more expensive filters but for <strong>my</strong> purposes the Cokins work very well.<br>

I'm using the P-system: a wideangle-filter-holder P299 (<strong>no</strong> vignetting with my 20mm lens on a fullformat DSLR), some adapterrings from 52 to 72mm and a set (called „H250“ and comes with a standard-filter-holder - not useful if you want to use a wideangle-lens) of 3 graduated ND-filters - P121L, P121M, P121S. <br>

If I had to choose just one of those three filters I would probably opt for the P121s - it's a three-stops-filter with „soft“-transition. <br>

I'm aware that the plastic-filters won't last forever but they are not overly expensive and if they are scratched someday I will replace them with new ones.<br>

Hope this helps, georg.<br>

<br /></p>

<p>Xiaoyuan.<br>

I use Cokin at my 77mm lenses and even with wide angle adapterring i get som vignetting at 24mm.<br>

They do also produce a z-pro system 4*6 that maybe allow for wider angles, have not tried.<br>

Singh-Ray offers a gnd filter this size, but no adapterring, i think.</p>

<p>Xiaoyuan,</p>

<p>> 1. If I just want to buy one GND filter, which type and brand do you recommend?</p>

<p>I recommend the Singh-Ray brand. All other brands that I have tried (including Lee) change the color of your images, particularly the skies. You can buy a cheap brand (e.g. Cokin) or another brand, but in my opinion you're just wasting your money by doing so as you'll have to replace those cheap ones later.</p>

<p>> 2. I should buy a square handheld filter or a screw-on filter which fit the lens</p>

<p>The screw-on style works for most filters, but it's useless for graduated filters. You have to be able to line the filter up properly for each shot, and you can't do that when it's screwed onto the lens. You need a rectangular filter and the appropriate holder and adapter ring. You didn't say what camera you're using, but unless you're shooting medium or large format, a Cokin holder would be your best bet. Don't forget to buy the adapter ring to match the size of your lens. For instance, if your lens takes 67mm filters, you'll need to buy a 67mm adapter ring.</p>

<p><strong>If you'll tell us how you're planning to use the filter we can make some more detailed recommendations for you.</strong> I find that 1-stop and 2-stop filters are the most useful for my photography (I use the 1-stop most often with both film and digital cameras), but I've used up to four stops effectively (3-stop plus 1-stop). Also, I prefer hard-edge filters but many other folks prefer soft-edge sloping filters. It all depends on what you're planning to shoot.</p>

<p>Also, if you use digital cameras, consider whether you can achieve the same effect with post-processing (e.g. shadow recovery) or by using HDR techniques. Even good filters may degrade your image quality slightly, so if you can get away without using one, that might be your best bet.</p>

<p>Additional info: If vignetting (shadows in the corners) proves to be a problem you can remove slots from the holder. With a Cokin holder, I think you actually have to cut away some of the plastic, but it's possible. (Maybe newer versions are adjustable, but I'm not sure.) I use the Lee holder system which is fully adjustable. I reduce them from three slots to two, and that works for most lenses. When you work with super-wide lenses (wider than 21mm in full-frame format or 14mm in APS-C format), even a one-slot holder can cause vignetting.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I have been using the Cokin GND filters on my Tokina 12-24 using a wide angle holder and have not seen any vignetting above 15mm. I purchased a set of three Cokin filters (P121S, P121M and P121L) from Adorama with a wide angle holder and two adapter rings, 77mm for the Tokina and 72mm for my Nikon 18-200. I would recommend starting with a set like this and then graduating to better more expensive systems like the Singh-Ray or Lee filters. Note that Singh-Ray filters will fit the cokin holders (am not sure about the Lee).</p>