What do you think about the Hoya HMC ND8 filter?

<p>Hi guys,<br />I am browsing for a ND8 filter on ebay and just found the HMC ND8 for $47 AUD. I tried to find a review but there is not many reviews or thoughts about this filter.<br>

Has anyone used this filter?<br />There's a B+W one as well, and it's quoted for $75ish AUD. What is the difference between this and the Hoya one? I understand that B+W is a wellknown brand and highly ranked in this (filter) field, but I don't know exactly how they differ.<br />I gonna use this ND8 on my Nikkor 16-35 f4 (77mm) with D700.<br />Please let me know your thoughts!<br />Cheers,<br />Khiem Le</p>

<p>Hoya and B+W multicoated filters are of high quality. Either should do a good job for you. The most significance between the two is that Hoya is Japanese and B+W is German.</p>

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<p><em>What is the difference between this and the Hoya one?</em></p>

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<p>The B+W has German Schott glass and is (probably) mounted in a brass alloy frame. The Hoya has Japanese (Hoya) glass and is mounted in an aluminum alloy frame (the weight difference will be quite obvious). If the filter threads on the 16~35mm f/4 are metal (aluminum) the B+W would be less likely to bind/gall when mounting.</p>

<p>HMC filters can apparently be a bit fussy to clean (smears). The B+W, if it is "MRC", has a hard coating that is easier to clean.</p>

<p>Both are excellent quality filters, but of the two the B+W is the premium filter. But pictorially you are unlikely to see much, if any difference, and either one would do quite nicely.</p>

<p>I haven't practice using ND filter a lot, do you think ND8 is sufficient to create the blurry water effect?<br>

Looking at this page: <a href="http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/filter,nd1000">http://fiveprime.org/hivemind/Tags/filter,nd1000</a> I can see ND1000 has done a great job there for its "10-stops strength"; so can ND8 get somewhere near that?<br>

Thanks,</p>

<p>ND8 (3 stops) isn't quite enough for bright sunlight. Even at ISO 100 and f16 it only drops the shutter speed to around 1/12s and you're probably going to want shutter speeds as slow as 1/4s, maybe even 1/2s depending how fast the water is flowing and how much blur you want. However you may rarely be shooting under such bright light and in that case it's probably OK. It's certainly fine whenever it's cloudy as long as you want a small aperture.</p>

<p>I have a series of flowing water images with technical info on ISO, aperture and shutter speed on this page - <a href="http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/Gallery/flowing_water/index.html">http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/Gallery/flowing_water/index.html</a></p>

<p>I have an ND400 filter which is about 9 stops. That's fine even for bright sunlight but is a bit strong when the light is low. It's good when you want extreme blurring with shutter speeds of 10s of seconds to minutes.</p>

<p>I've got one and have used it primarily for shooting with strobes outdoors to get a little bit shallower DOF when shooting against strong ambient light and to keep my shutter speeds under the flash sync speed. I haven't noticed any quality issues or had any concerns with the Hoya. Most all of my other filters are B+W, but I bought the Hoya because I ran across a really good deal.</p>

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<p>(the weight difference will be quite obvious)</p>

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<p>You would think so, but...</p>

<ul>

<li>A 77mm filter glass weights 24g.</li>

<li>A 77mm aluminum filter ring 5g, and a brass ring 15g (brass is 3.1x more dense than aluminum).</li>

</ul>

<p>So, the complete filter will weigh 29g with the aluminum ring, 39g with the brass one. Humans are really bad ad judging weight, you'd probably not notice the difference picking one up, putting it down and picking up the other.</p>

 

<p>I have a Hoya ND filter that has a very noticeable green colour cast. I've never had that problem with a B+W. I know i can lose the green in post, but why should I need to bother?</p>

<p>I use it with <a href="http://www.losangelescamerarentals.com/category/canon-ef-lens-rental-los-angeles">Canon lenses</a> like the 70-200, 24-70 or 24-105 and works like a charm. Also the fact that is multi-coated helps to minimize reflections. I also use it with fast lenses like my Rokinon 24mm f1.4 and I'm able to open up all the way to f1.4 in an outdoor shot to get a cool shallow-depth of field type of shot.</p>