Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: MartinSpence on December 22, 2014, 01:41:16 pm
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Hi guys
I have a couple B&W filters, however the Big Stopper always seems to leave a brown colour cast on the final image, does anyone else experience this? Do you have a way to correct for a colour photo or do you always convert to B&W?
Has anyone used these filters - https://www.formatt-hitech.com/en/products/Firecrest-ND~195.html?
Thanks
Martin
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Not familiar with those particular filters (they sound interesting) but the color cast problem is from IR contamination. An IR may help resolve that when using a bigstopper or similar.
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Not familiar with those particular filters (they sound interesting) but the color cast problem is from IR contamination. An IR may help resolve that when using a bigstopper or similar.
While IR can be an issue with extremely long exposures using more than 6 or so stops of ND, but every ND has a color cast. Hoya, Tiffen, B+W, Singh-Ray, all of them. Some worse than other. Some brownish while other more magenta.
Firecrest get good reviews for Neutrality...at least the 16 stop IRND. B+W ND has bad color casts. I typically use Hoya Pro ND, but have been toying with extreme long exposures and the Firecrest line is something I'm considering.
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Search on this site has maybe 40 threads on the subject.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=93097.0 (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=93097.0)
SG
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Thanks guys
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Thanks guys
I will just say that a lot of people on boards will reflexively tell you B+W are the best filters. This was true 20-25 years ago when grinding and polishing glass flat within tight tolerances was tough and the Schot glass is very good. But now, with the proliferation of quality manufacturing technology, it just isn't that hard anymore. B+W other claim to fame has been brass rings instead of aluminum. But no matter which, if you tighten a filter too tight it is going to stick and be tough to get apart.
My CPL recommendations would be the Nikon CPL II or B+W KSM CPL. But with ND, I would recommend Hoya. If you really want to spend a lot of money, the Singh-Ray are good as are the B+W, but Hoya's top line are very good and usually much more affordable. Hoya is the number 1 manufacturer of optical glass in the world. I am also interested in the Formatt-Hightec Firecrest IRND line which also uses Schott glass. The 16 stop thing gets good reviews, but have not seen the lower densities yet.
In the Variable Faders, I would go with the Schneider (B+W parent) that goes from 3-11 stops (it is only single coated).
Real key is there is some trial an error until you find how much ND you tend to need. Most people are in the 3-6 stop range while others doing really long exposure are up in the 10-16 stops. But until you figure that out, I wouldn't spend really big money on single stop ND.
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I will just say that a lot of people on boards will reflexively tell you B+W are the best filters. This was true 20-25 years ago when grinding and polishing glass flat within tight tolerances was tough and the Schot glass is very good. But now, with the proliferation of quality manufacturing technology, it just isn't that hard anymore. B+W other claim to fame has been brass rings instead of aluminum. But no matter which, if you tighten a filter too tight it is going to stick and be tough to get apart.
My CPL recommendations would be the Nikon CPL II or B+W KSM CPL. But with ND, I would recommend Hoya. If you really want to spend a lot of money, the Singh-Ray are good as are the B+W, but Hoya's top line are very good and usually much more affordable. Hoya is the number 1 manufacturer of optical glass in the world. I am also interested in the Formatt-Hightec Firecrest IRND line which also uses Schott glass. The 16 stop thing gets good reviews, but have not seen the lower densities yet.
In the Variable Faders, I would go with the Schneider (B+W parent) that goes from 3-11 stops (it is only single coated).
Real key is there is some trial an error until you find how much ND you tend to need. Most people are in the 3-6 stop range while others doing really long exposure are up in the 10-16 stops. But until you figure that out, I wouldn't spend really big money on single stop ND.
I personally will not buy another Hoya filter again. I had two Hoya polarizers fall apart on me, one during a precious trip. Looking on the net, this was a common problem with Hoya. They lost my trust in their product.
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I personally will not buy another Hoya filter again. I had two Hoya polarizers fall apart on me, one during a precious trip. Looking on the net, this was a common problem with Hoya. They lost my trust in their product.
I also had a Hoya filter falling apart. Thank goodness it was in the store that tried to convince me it was a better filter than the one I wanted to buy ...
Cheers,
Bart
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I hear Matt Kloskowki uses Tiffen.
While Brian Matiash uses Firecrest (Formatt-Hitech) filters..
So much choice...
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I personally will not buy another Hoya filter again. I had two Hoya polarizers fall apart on me, one during a precious trip. Looking on the net, this was a common problem with Hoya. They lost my trust in their product.
Precisely why my CPL recommendations did not include the Hoya HD CPL, even though it is a great performer. In fact after the Nikon, that would be the my favorite rendition before the B+W. Though the B+W XS-Pro KSM CPL is weather sealed. I've had 2 Hoya's auto disassemble on me. One spontaneously and one when I fumbled it to the ground. But I have never had a problem with their not moving part filters.