I haven't been out on the island recently, as the infamous Scottish midges are now out in force and so are keeping me indoors for the time being, which is so annoying as we have had some stunning sunsets recently. They were late coming out this year, but now seem to be trying to make up for lost time or something and they all seem to like the taste of Dave the photographer, anyhoo...
So I got this new big stopper type of filter (
link here) for my birthday (yes I am 21 again before you ask) and as there was a bit of a breeze last night, it meant the midges couldn't fly or bite me and so I decided I would go out and give this 10 stop filter a go at one of my local scenes. So off we went with our flask of tea etc and when we got there, it was a pleasant evening, not stunning but pleasant none the less and I was just glad to be out grabbing a few clicks and taking the shot shown below.
So do I think the Hoya 82 mm Pro ND 1000 Filter is any good and worth buying?
Well on my old 16-35 L Canon with 77mm filter size and even though this Hoya filter is of a thin construction and 82mm, I was still getting quite a lot of very dark vignetting at 16mm and so had to zoom in quite a bit to remove it (about 24mm, although I zoomed in more to frame this shot), but I imagine this would not be a problem at all on slightly longer focal length lenses. There also doesn't seem to be any colour cast problems with this particular version of the Hoya ND filter, as I had read there can be with other manufacturers filters at the lower end of the price range, so that was good. I also found that in bright side lit situations as shown in the image below, that all I needed to do was to expose at a fairly standard 1.5 minutes at ISO 100. I tried 2 minutes as well to see what would happen, but the shot began to wash out and at 1 minute the image was too dark, although I am sure I could have easily repaired both shots in PP. I imagine on overcast days, all I will need to do is double that exposure time to around 3 minutes or bump up the ISO to 200 or both if it is really dark, so not a difficult filter to use. I also have my camera set to not emulate the exposure time on the screen (A7R2), as the camera can only go up to 30 seconds without BULB mode, which meant I could still set manual focus easily by eye, as the screen tried its best to light up the scene and allow me to see it and focus properly, instead of trying to show me what a 30 second exposure (its limit) would look like if it was emulating the exposure, which would be far too dark to focus by eye.
Also the filter is reasonably priced at around £64 (it was even less when I selected it for my birthday present, at around £57 if I remember correctly, so shop around for a bargain), which meant I could buy the biggest 82mm version of it and a set of cheap step up and step down rings (
link here) for not a lot of money and I would also be able to use it with all my other lenses of different filter sizes.
So all in all, for around £75 all in or less, you can buy a really dark "Big Stopper" type of screw in filter, that seems to be just as good as the more expensive Lee version (
link here) and you don't need a filter holder kit, but that does mean you will be shooting exposure times in excess of 1.5 minutes - but if you really want to shoot ultra wide without vignetting, then the Lee filter system may still be your best choice, but you will need a filter holder kit which isn't cheap, but then if you already own one...
So yes, I would recommend this filter, it is fun and easy to carry in your bag without taking up much room and even though loooong exposure shots of seascapes etc have definitely become something of a well worn cliche these days, it is still very much fun to do and with not too much financial outlay for a really heavy ND filter such as this and when bought with a set of cheap step up/down rings, means that nowadays anyone with any size lens (within limits of course) can now do this type of photography and also expect to do it really well
Dave
