Filter systems - Lee vs Hi Tech

[sunshine1234]

I am about to purchase a Lee Filter System for holding 100mm filters on my Canon DSLR.

Now I see Hi Tech has a 165mm holder and filters.

I'd like to hear from people who have actually used these products.

Which is better to buy for someone just starting to use square filters?

[Paul2660]

To me, being from the US, it's easier to put them in inches,  Lee and Hi-Tech both make 4" x 4", 4' x 6", and 6" x 6".

The 4 x 4 squares will be glass from Lee in ND 0.6, 0.9 Little Stopper and Big Stopper, 10x.  Lee also makes a CL-PL in glass that is 4 x 4.
The 4 x 6 filters are resin, and tend to be grads, either soft or hard line. 
The 6 x 6 filters from Lee are Resin and meant for the Nikon 14 x 24 with the SW-150 mount.  However that mount can be adapted to other Lee mounts.

The Lee Glass ND's are excellent and have no color cast I can see in my work.  They do scratch easier than most ND filters.  The Lee CL-PL is also a great filter, but you have to remember to place the Lee lettering on the outside or the filter acts more like a warming filter.  You can see the effect easily.  The Lee 6x and 10x stoppers tend to cause a blue tint on longer exposures, due to IR pollution.  There are other brands in a 4 x 4 stopper style that do have a better IR coating, that can fit the Lee holder.

The Lee resin grads, come in all colors and ranges of density.  I used to use them a lot more than I do now since the DR of the cameras I use allows a lot more shadow push, when exposing for highlights.  There are times I do like them for certain effects. 

Hi-Tech makes several grades of filters and now they have glass filters also.  Their quality has improved dramatically over the past 2 years and now I would put their glass on the same level as Lee, however as I own so many Lee filters, I don't use the Hi-Tech. 
Hi-Tech resin for years like Cokin had a magenta cast, that has also been fixed and their resin filters are very good. 

With your Canon, you just need to figure out which lenses you want to use and get the mounting rings.  These come in a wide angle style and normal.  For any lens 14mm to 50mm, I would use the wide angle ring.  If you do use the wide angle ring, do not mount it in front of a CL-PL screw type filter as you will likely not be able to get the wide angle ring off.  The wide angle rings fit over the outer edge of the lens, to help lessen vignetting, and thus you can't get to the CL-PL to hold it, so when you twist to take the wide angle ring off, the CL-PL turns also. 

Both Lee and Hi-Tech can be purchased at www.2filter.com in the U.S.  They are very close to both companies and an excellent dealer. 

Paul

[NancyP]

Enthusiastic seconding of the www.2filter.com company, run by a very nice guy who will answer any question you have.

First figure out what lenses you plan to use. The 150mm (6" x 6"+) and 165mm  systems are for the ultrawide lenses such as the Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8. Filters are very expensive anyway, so don't get a huge size unless you really need it. Plus, filters and holders do take up space in your bag, so if you can get by with 100mm (4" x 4", 4" x 6"), it will be more convenient, and if you shoot a compact camera, there are filter sets sized for compacts (yes, you can use a large filter set on a compact as well as a regular SLR, but if all you shoot is compact, save money and go for the small size).

For users of the Samyang 14mm f/2.8, particularly English and European users, there is a less-expensive kit with holder and one solid ND and one neutral grad ND. One of the problems with the ultrawides is that one has to make sure not only that there is no hard (mechanical) vignetting, but that there isn't a ton of reflections coming from the back surface of the filter, which sticks way out beyond the lens. The UWA designs and DIY hacks usually try to add a light baffle to cut out reflection. (Samyang owner here, had been contemplating the filter problem, just hadn't got to that particular hack, now anxiously awaiting US availability of the kit).

[NancyP]

P.S.
I use Lee. The holder and adapters are sturdy and easy to use. The ND grad I have is a Lee 0.6 soft grad. I also have a Hi-tech ND 0.9 "reverse grad." useful for sunrise and sunset where there is an intense band of light at the horizon. One can do overlapping ND grads to get the same effect, I understand. I haven't much used the Lee Big Stopper, which is awaiting the perfect set of scudding clouds. Caution about adapters - don't put a wide angle adapter in front of the polarizer filter, assuming your CPL has front threads. The wide angle adapter threads are sunken, and the front portion of the CPL gets swallowed up and you can't grab on to it to remove the adapter. Or so I am told. Looking at my CPL and wide angle adapter, I can foresee disaster and have no reason to repeat others' mistakes. So, you will need to get a large polarizer filter for the front of the Lee or Hi-tech or whomever holder. Having the CPL on the front allows you to turn it more easily.

[Chairman Bill]

I had similar problems with my 18-35 & the wide-angle adaptor. It cost me a twisted & broken uv filter.

I've got a Lee holder set-up, and a mix of Lee & Hitech filters. The standard ND filters are pretty much of a similar quality to the Lee ones, but the Hitech equivalent of the Big Stopper, does leave something of a blue-ish cast, which I'm told isn't present on the Lee version. That said, it is correctable, and a) a lot cheaper, and b) more often in stock than the Lee one.

I've also heard that Hitech's quality has improved markedly over the last couple of years, in which case they make economic sense.