Neutral Density on M7ii

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I looked up about using a Neutral Density filter on my M7. I bought a ton of 400 ISO speed film but realized that I will most likely be shooting outside (for the most part) and the camera won't register such high shutter speeds especially if I want to be shooting at f/4.</p>

<p>I want to buy an ND4 (0.6 filter which I read gives me two stops darker, so my question would be, if I have this filter on my camera, would I press the shutter halfway, see the exposure and then compensate by setting the dial to a "+2" on the overexposure scale to get the accurate reading since it is not metering through the lens?</p>

<p>I looked up the question and someone said this:</p>

<table border="1" width="320" align="center">

<tbody>

<tr>

<td><strong>Color & B/W Filter</strong></td>

<td>

<strong>Stops</strong>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>2-stop Graduated ND (Grad ND 0.6)</td>

<td>

1

 

</td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

<p>But why does it say "one stop" when it should be two?</p>

<p>Any help would be great,</p>

<p>pedro</p>

<p>Note carefully that correction's for a <strong>graduated</strong> ND.</p>

<p>If you're using a solid ND, you want to do exactly what you think you should.</p>

<p>The guy above should actually be saying 0. You should be using a grad ND to darken the brighter parts of your picture. Do a plus 1 as he says and you will blow out the uncovered part.<br>

For a solid ND, which is what you want, plus as many stops as the filter darkens, so for your 2 stop filter, do a +2.<br>

I would also buy a 4 stop ND as well. ISO 400 in bright sunlight will limit you to a pretty small aperture (about f16) and the 2 stop reduction will not let you get anywhere near to full open aperture if that is what you want to do. A 4 stop filter will at least let you get closer and you could probably even stack the 2 to make a 6 stop if they don't vignette.<br>

Also, buy a good ND. Cheaper NDs are not truly neutral so you can get some weird colour shifts.</p>

<p>thank you!</p>

<p>Also, Chuk I have a quick inquiry. The M7ii only lets me do a +2, so if I were to buy a 4 stop ND and had 400 ISO film in the camera and wanted to do the 4 stops, would I temporarily set my ISO to 100 or 1600 along with the +2 to get two more stops? Would changing this ISO affect the picture? I feel it would not but might be wrong</p>

<p>pedro</p>

<p>The first question has to be why are you shooting at f/4? The Mamiya lenses are terrific, but few lenses are at their best wide open. I have used neutral density filters up to 6 stops (density 1.8) with my M7II usually for waterfalls in bright light to extend shutter speed. For a 0.6 filter, just measure exposure and open the lens 2 stops or quadruple the shutter speed, eg 1/30 becomes 1/8, f/8 becomes f/4. Don't confuse graduated with plain neutral density filters.<br>

Good luck.</p>

<p>Pedro, yes, you would temporarily change the ISO if you want to go further than 2 stops. Set the exp. compensation to +2 then dial the ISO dial to 2 stops slower film. So if you have 400 in the camera and a +4 ND, then you set the exp. compensation to +2 and dial ISO 100 on the film dial. Alternatively, meter without any compensation or ISO changes and then do it manually. Its probably easier to just set the E.C. dial and the ISO dial, slap the filter on and then forget about it until you move to a darker place where you can remove the filter and reset the dials.</p>

<p>May I suggest that you think of the problem in terms of slowing your Tri-X down to ISO 100? Just mount your ND .6 ND filter, which cuts the amount of light to your Tri-X by 2 stops, to get the equivalent of ISO 100 film. Then set your camera's (or off-camera light meter's) ISO to 100 while the ND filter is mounted. Change it back to 400 when you take it off.<br>

By using the ISO setting in conjunction with ND filters, you can reserve the exposure compensation adjustment even with your ND filter mounted on the lens, for what it's commonly used for--shooting into the light, etc.-- without having to figure everything out all over again.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Brian, that is an excellent idea! I will try it out :D</p>

<p>pedro</p>