Pages: [1] 2   Go Down

Author Topic: The most color neutral ND filter?  (Read 11130 times)

Graham Clark

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 179
    • grahamclarkphoto.com
The most color neutral ND filter?
« on: May 04, 2015, 03:04:13 pm »

Bryan Carnathan over at the-digital-picture.com just wrote a pretty decent 10-stop ND technical shootout-style review with the B+W ND vs. Heliopan ND vs. Hoya ProND vs. Tiffen ND vs. Singh-Ray Mor-Slo vs. Breakthrough Photography X3 ND.

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/10-Stop-Neutral-Density-Filter.aspx



If you're concerned with critical sharpness and color neutrality definitely check it out.

Graham


ps - I'm with Breakthrough
Logged
Graham Clark  |  grahamclarkphoto.com

dwswager

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1375
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2015, 05:00:24 pm »

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/10-Stop-Neutral-Density-Filter.aspx

Based on what I see in the above link, my choices would be Hoya or Breakthrough depending on your needs.  I wouldn't even consider the Tiffen, B&W or Heliopan. 

1. Hoya - $97
2. Breakthrough - $179

And if you just have to spend $380, the the Singh-Ray!   
Logged

NancyP

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2513
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2015, 08:34:11 pm »

OK, I may be a bit naive - but can't you just shoot a decent gray card or a Gretag color card and correct from there?
Logged

Graham Clark

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 179
    • grahamclarkphoto.com
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2015, 08:48:31 pm »

OK, I may be a bit naive - but can't you just shoot a decent gray card or a Gretag color card and correct from there?

Sure, until you change lighting conditions and have to repeat the process over each time.

Besides, color matters! :) It's worth it (to some photographers) to have lenses and other optics resolve sharp and not arbitrarily throw color where color doesn't exist.

Graham
Logged
Graham Clark  |  grahamclarkphoto.com

dwswager

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1375
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2015, 10:43:00 pm »

OK, I may be a bit naive - but can't you just shoot a decent gray card or a Gretag color card and correct from there?

Yes, but as Graham said, you have to do a new shot in every lighting condition.  And some casts are very difficult to correct because they are not uniform across the spectrum.

No ND is perfectly neutral.  But neutrality is just one factor.  The clarity of the glass is another.  About 20 years ago B+W filters got a great reputation and the Schott glass is great, but I find them impossible to keep clean, not near as neutral and you would expect and even though brass, they bind like aluminum filters.
Logged

Graham Clark

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 179
    • grahamclarkphoto.com
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2015, 10:45:45 pm »

No, what I'm saying is that you can't use auto WB in your scenario.

The X3 ND is not 100% color neutral. It is however the most color neutral: http://diglloyd.com/articles/Filters/filter-X3-ND-10stop.html

Graham
Logged
Graham Clark  |  grahamclarkphoto.com

EduPerez

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 700
    • Edu Pérez
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #6 on: May 06, 2015, 11:16:29 am »

OK, I may be a bit naive - but can't you just shoot a decent gray card or a Gretag color card and correct from there?

When using wide-angle lenses, the effect of some ND filters is more accentuated on the corners (sort of a vignetting effect), because the light has to travel a longer distance inside the filter; when that happens, the color cast is also more accentuated on the corners, and that is quite hard to correct on post.
Logged

figure1a

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 58
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #7 on: May 14, 2015, 12:08:24 am »

Gray card correction doesn't fix everything. Some ND filters will make mud out of certain tones. Your best bet is a "water white" ND filter like Tiffen makes.
Logged

CptZar

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 157
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #8 on: May 14, 2015, 07:14:38 am »

Lee?

AreBee

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 638
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2015, 07:43:41 am »

CptZar,

Quote
Lee?

"Note that the popular and reasonably-priced Lee Big Stopper 10-Stop ND Filter was not included in this comparison review. I needed a threaded round filter, but the Big Stopper is only available in flat rectangular sizes. I will consider the addition of Big Stopper results to this page at some point in the future."
Logged

Ellis Vener

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2151
    • http://www.ellisvener.com

The review has a couple of problems relating to a lack of information about which camera he did the tests with and breadth of filters he tested . While he states which Canon camera and lenses he used, in my more limited tests,  the different sensor/processor technologies in different makes of cameras make a major difference in color rendering.

Also he doesn't state which Tiffen 10-stop (ND 3.0) filter he tested. Tiffen makes at least three if not four different ones.
Logged

CptZar

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 157
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #11 on: May 14, 2015, 04:10:56 pm »

CptZar,

"Note that the popular and reasonably-priced Lee Big Stopper 10-Stop ND Filter was not included in this comparison review. I needed a threaded round filter, but the Big Stopper is only available in flat rectangular sizes. I will consider the addition of Big Stopper results to this page at some point in the future."

Txs!

EduPerez

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 700
    • Edu Pérez
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #12 on: May 14, 2015, 04:38:06 pm »

I have also read some good reviews about "Haida" filters: cheaper than most other brands, reasonable image quality, and very color neutral.
Logged

robdickinson

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 239
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #13 on: May 14, 2015, 05:59:42 pm »

Lee?

Much as I like my big stopper it is far from neutral, its certainly good and workable but often I am adding 5-10k WB. The little stopepr is much better,

Format hitech firecrest is probably the best square one atm.
Logged

voidshatter

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 400
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #14 on: May 14, 2015, 08:56:45 pm »

I don't know about Breakthrough, but my favorite is Singh-Ray since they offer both 10-stop and 15-stop in various sizes.
Logged

jharrisonphoto

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 22
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #15 on: February 14, 2016, 01:11:46 pm »

Sorry to revive an old thread... anyone purchased these and have feedback to add?  Thought I would give them a try.
John
Logged

shotupdave

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 41
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #16 on: February 14, 2016, 09:16:06 pm »

Sorry to revive an old thread... anyone purchased these and have feedback to add?  Thought I would give them a try.
John

i dot buy any of what he reviewed, i borrowed a haida from a local camera shop and from its performance, i bought the 6x and 10x
Logged

t6b9p

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 70
    • BeyondVisible
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #17 on: February 15, 2016, 11:18:33 am »

Quote
When using wide-angle lenses, the effect of some ND filters is more accentuated on the corners (sort of a vignetting effect), because the light has to travel a longer distance inside the filter; when that happens, the color cast is also more accentuated on the corners, and that is quite hard to correct on post.

Try a little program called CornerFix.
Logged

E.J. Peiker

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 891
    • http://www.ejphoto.com
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #18 on: February 15, 2016, 11:22:01 am »

Actually an Lens Cast Correction (LCC) shot with the filter in place can also correct this relatively easily (especially if you are using CaptureOne).  Check out the Lens Cast Correction video on the Capture One 9 videos here on LuLa for how to do this.  The downside is that you would have to do it for each lighting condition you encounter.
Logged

JohnBrew

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 868
    • http://www.johnbrewton.zenfolio.com
Re: The most color neutral ND filter?
« Reply #19 on: February 15, 2016, 11:33:35 am »

I have Breakthrough 10-stops in two different sizes. I have Formatt-Hitech in a 6-stop and a B+W in a 3-stop. Color cast means nothing to me as I only use these filters for bw conversions and the very occasional sunrise/sunset. I like the Breakthrough for the knurled edges and it works well (very neutral). I found the F-H, despite the tests shown, to be very similar. I shoot a D810 which probably records differently from a Canon. I have produced some fantastic images stacking the B and F-H. When I stacked the B+W with either one of the others I got some weird flaring which could not be removed.
Just my experience.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2016, 06:28:06 pm by JohnBrew »
Logged
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up