mike sisk Posted January 14, 2003 Share Posted January 14, 2003 Often a question is asked about the various brands of graduated neutral density filters. I've used Singh-Ray and Tiffen but not Hitech, which is often mentioned as being much cheaper than the others. Today I received an order from B&H with some Hitech grads. Not bad for the price. You can buy 3 Hitech ND grads for the price of 1 Singh-Ray or 4 for the price of 1 Tiffen. In the attached picture the Hitech is on the left, the Singh-Ray in the middle, and the Tiffen on the right. All are 3-stop hard. The Tiffen is glass, the others optical resin. The Singh-Ray has the hardest transistion, closely followed by the Hitech. The Tiffen is much softer and closer to 2-stops. All fit the Cokin P holder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil_walden Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 Thanks Mike for your comparative illustration. You've answered something I've wondered about for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
todd_caudle Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 Excellent! If anyone can provide a similar demonstration with soft-edge filters of varying brands, that would REALLY be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_henderson Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 Good stuff. Tell me, were all the filters about the same colour-ie did they all look neutral? On my monitor, the jpeg makes the Tiffen look a little warm and the HiTech a touch cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike sisk Posted January 15, 2003 Author Share Posted January 15, 2003 The Singh-Ray and Hitech look neutral to me. The Tiffen does have a slight warm cast. This photo was taken with a digital camera on a lightbox, so don't judge the colors by what you see here. I've attached another picture that compares the Hitech 3-stop hard edge and a hitech 3-stop soft edge. Sorry, I don't have any soft-edge Singh-Ray filters. I do have a soft-edge Tiffen that I took a picture of and included in a thread here a month or so ago. I should also mention the Singh-Ray filters come with a nice "leather-ish" padded case whereas the Hitech comes in a cheap vinyl evelope. The Tiffen comes in a padded ballistic nylon case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_henderson Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 Thanks again-very helpful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliff_henry Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 Mike, Thanks for posting - very interesting. You wrote: "The Tiffen come in ballistic nylon case." I have a Tiffen ND grad-XL in this case and have now broken two of these because the case does not offer enough protection. At $115. each this could get expensive! Has anyone found a good case that will protect these filters? Thanks, Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pvp Posted January 16, 2003 Share Posted January 16, 2003 First, thanks to Mike for the comparison of the hard edge filters. Seeing is understanding.<P> As for the cases, Pelican makes some small cases that would be just the thing for 4x6 grads, about $15-$20. Just plug "pelican" into the search box at the top of B&H's page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fnu_brawijaya Posted January 19, 2003 Share Posted January 19, 2003 PopPhotography has an article about storing filters i.e. grad ND filters. He uses CD Wallet from Walmart where the partitions are made from cloth. I bought it from Automobile section in WalMart for 5 bucks. I think this is a great idea for various filters that have different sizes like yours. FNU Brawijaya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
todd_caudle Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 Another important consideration to take into account is the length of the filters. I currently use a Sing-Ray filter, which, judging by Mike's excellent photos, is longer than either the Hi-Tech or Tiffen. My concern is that, in situations where I'm blocking only the top 25% or so of the image, the bottom of the filter will come into view in the lower portion of the image. A friend of mine was experiencing exactly that problem a few days ago as we shot side by side, although I think he was using a Cokin, which is shorter than those shown above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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