D700 and singh ray filters

[owenpga]

Just curious to know what full frame shooters are using for there Nd filters. I have the vari-n -duo which i was using with my d200 and loved it. In my limited  experience it seems pretty useless on my d700 for anything less than 35mm and creates all kinds of dark hour glass shapes from the polarizer.
Since the 700 will be my primary camera i'm not sure of the next step. i'm a little reluctant to spend another 400 not know what to expect as far as vignetting goes.
Any suggestions would be great. thanks, owen

[jasonrandolph]

Unfortunately, I have no other suggestions for you, as I'm in the same boat.  It works great on my 70-200, but on the 24-70 at the wide end, I have the same problem.  I think I'll probably wind up dropping the $400 for the Vari-ND.

[Sheldon N]

The Singh Ray filter is certainly going to be better quality than other Vari-ND's, but it has the same underlying optical issues (hourglass banding) with wide angle lenses and strong ND values that any other "two-polarizer" variable ND system has. Plus, two stacked polarizers will give you corner vignetting on wide angle lenses simply because of the filter ring depth.

Personally, I use a Lee filter holder in combination with solid ND filters for the Lee holder. I've got a Hitech 4 stop and a Lee 10 stop ND filter, in addition to the normal ND grads. I use a 1Ds III and 16-35mm II lens which has an 82mm filter size. If you have a lens with 77mm filters you have more options for solid screw in ND filters, such as B+W's 6 stop and 10 stop filters.