Lee filters set

Wailin

Hey all. I am looking to get some decent filters and have been looking at the 100mm Lee sets. There's a lot of different types and im struggling to decide on what to go for. Basically it will be for shooting sunrises/sunsets, long exposure motion etc. I'm not sure whether to go with soft, medium or hard grad and I would appreciate your thoughts or experiences on the matter.

Aren't they bloody expensive!

The_Gatsby

Wailin wrote: »

Aren't they bloody expensive!

Can't offer any advice, only agree with how expensive they are :P I really want some as well (75 system) but my god, the price.

Tiriel

My experience with filters:

I bought the Cokin P system initially, a starter kit with 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 full ND and the same in soft Grad, the holder and the adaptor for my widest lens at the time.

Used it lots. The colour cast (magenta, painful to remove if even possible on some photos) drove me mad.

I recently upgraded to Lee - same sets as above. I use soft grad as I like to be able to move it with no risk of hard lines and cutting through anything on the horizon - but that's just me. I've been on workshops and shoots with other photographers who only use hard grads and their work is great - it suits them. Not for me though.

I WANT a Big stopper or a Super stopper.. but not spending for the foreseeable future!

Lee - the cast isn't there (so far.. I haven't been out shooting as much as I should)

I've heard that Hi-tech or Tiffin are an option and there are a host of new brands (NiSi for example) that you could try also. I just went with Lee as I wanted to buy in store (Barker Photographic in Cork) at the last minute before a weekend photography trip.

Remember you need an adaptor ring to fit each lens you will be using the filters with.

toe_knee

Love the look and idea of the Nisi holder system as it holds the polariser in it and can be adjusted easily

Portlawslim

I have the Lee system and it's very expensive and took me  over a year to gather. I have the foundation kit, the wide angle mounting rings 67mm & 77mm, the soft grad kit(1,2,3 stops) a 4 stop hard grad(great for seascape sunrise/sunset) Big & Little stopper and landscape polariser, the plastic lens caps and nearly forgot the filter pouch which holds up to 10 filters.
I love'em and couldn't imagine doing a landscape shoot without them, no colour cast, easy to use and very effective. I rarely use the 1 stop soft grad and a few of my fellow photographers that I go shooting with are the same but it came with the kit so..Well worth the investment for the results you'll get but very pricey, I mean £44.50 for the mounting ring for the polariser!!

Wailin

Thanks Portlaw yeah they are very expensive. Plus I need the 100mm set to cover wide angle on full frame which doesn't help. So the hard grad would be better for straight horizons such as seascape shots yes? Soft or medium grad for more uneven horizons then i would guess.

Portlawslim

Yeah, good start with the soft grads (as I said you won't get much use out of the 1 stop, or maybe you will!) If you can stretch to the polariser as well and maybe the little stopper, Just remortgage the house and you'll be grand!

Hector Savage

So 100mm, it's designed specifically for that focal length ? or is that the diameter of the lens ?
sorry for the silly question.

Wailin

Hector Savage wrote: »

So 100mm, it's designed specifically for that focal length ? or is that the diameter of the lens ?
sorry for the silly question.

It's just the width of the filters Hector. I think they come in 3 sizes - 75mm, 100mm and 150mm. Ig I was to go with 75mm on a full frame camera with 16mm lens I'd have issues with vignetting so I need the bigger (and even more expensive!) 100mm size.

I ordered the deluxe set which comes with 3 medium grad filters, big stopper, circular polarizer and various attachments......cost me over €600:(

The_Gatsby

Wailin wrote: »

I ordered the deluxe set which comes with 3 medium grad filters, big stopper, circular polarizer and various attachments......cost me over €600:(

Where did you get them? Were there other options available? I'd probably like just the polariser, soft grad and big stopper to start

Wailin

The_Gatsby wrote: »

Where did you get them? Were there other options available? I'd probably like just the polariser, soft grad and big stopper to start

Got them from speed graphic in the uk. They were cheaper than amazon. £537 compared to £599 on amazon.

The set comes with the holders for grad filters and circular polarizer. I ordered the wide angle adaptors from amazon separately.

Portlawslim

Have a look at there website, the videos by Joe Cornish are very helpful
http://http://www.leefilters.com/index.php/camera

Tiriel

Next step.. make sure you have decent size lens cloths to keep them clean when using them. It's always a challenge with sea-spray and fine mist/drops of rain. The lens cleaner spray for eye-glasses in Specsavers is also useful - better to spray a little and then clean as any sand particles can cause surface damage.

Silva360

If folk are not in a hurry, just buy used. It will take time to get a good deal, but a couple of years back I got the landscape circular polariser and the adapter ring for £120 total and free p&p from eBay. Both in as new condition. That's a 50% saving. However, it did take me a few months to find the right deal.

Unless you're doing a lot of seascapes, I reckon it's best to go with soft grads (two and three stop probably being the most useful for general purpose work).

A 3 stop ND is also really useful to pair with the polariser for water if you want that dreamy look and there is still a lot of light. A little stopper is also useful (6 stops).

Lee don't have colour casts apart from the stoppers which have a blue cast, but it's easy to remove post processing.

If you're shooting wide, then get the wide angle adapter to avoid vignetting. The Landscape circular polariser is also less prone to vignetting than the normal circular polariser (it's a lot thinner and can be fiddly to unscrew if you have screwed it in tight).

If you have a few filters it's well worth buying the Lee filter 'field' pouch. It's so handy compared to the other pouches.

adox

The Little Stopper is fantastic for sunrise/sunsets when the Big Stopper is overkill. I bought the Little Stopper just to see what it was like after owning the Big Stopper and use the Little Stopper much more. Great for dawn/dusk and also for moving water etc.

I use mostly hard grads for all landscape/seascape. The soft grads sound good in theory but I find them much less effective.

If you are getting a polariser and are shooting wide I'd recommend their specific landscape polariser. I have the regular one(still cost a bloody fortune and that was second hand) and on a cropped body I think 16mm is the widest I can shoot before getting vignetting.

Couple of other Lee products that are cheap and well worth the purchase are a set of their lens caps. Maybe a tenner or something for a pack of three, you can leave the adaptor ring on your lens and use them as a lens cap. A simple solution but an adsolute time and frustration saver.
The Lee field pouch. Maybe €50 should hold all your filters, can be hooked onto a belt or onto your tripod, it's another godsend. Saves space in your bag and you have all your filters to hand when set up. No more going back to your bag and putting in and taking filters out of cases mid shot.
Both of these are practically essentials once you have some filters and are probably the cheapest things that Lee produce.

The_Gatsby

I just bought this kit from Formatt-Hitech http://www.formatt-hitech.com/kits/master-filter-kit-ken-kaminesky-signature-edition

I use a mft Panasonic so at £300 + VAT this kit seems to be a lot better value than Lee. The Formatt-Hitech kit also includes several adapter rings which is nice and more soft grads than the Lee deluxe kit which I prefer. Their new Firecrest coating is supposed to eliminate colour cast so I'm hoping that's true and that paying for a cheaper kit won't come back to bite me!

Portlawslim

Yeah the Lens caps are great, I leave them on all the time as I rarely remove the adaptor rings!

Hector Savage

Wailin wrote: »

It's just the width of the filters Hector. I think they come in 3 sizes - 75mm, 100mm and 150mm. Ig I was to go with 75mm on a full frame camera with 16mm lens I'd have issues with vignetting so I need the bigger (and even more expensive!) 100mm size.

I ordered the deluxe set which comes with 3 medium grad filters, big stopper, circular polarizer and various attachments......cost me over €600:(

Wow !
Is photography your profession?

Wailin

Hector Savage wrote: »

Wow !
Is photography your profession?

Nope, hobby.

Portlawslim

Hector Savage wrote: »

Wow !
Is photography your profession?

Wailin wrote: »

Nope, hobby.

Aw jaysus I know the feeling:eek:

OldGoat

Are Lee and Cokin filters interchangable onto each others systems? If, for example, I bought a Big Stopper would it fit to a Cokin kit or if I use the cheaper Cokin filters for some destructive experimentation will they fit a Lee system?

evolutionqy7

Someone might bite my hand here, but would you not be better off just taking multiple exposure's and combining them together in photoshop with layers and masks?

The_Gatsby

evolutionqy7 wrote: »

Someone might bite my hand here, but would you not be better off just taking multiple exposure's and combining them together in photoshop with layers and masks?

You definitely could and that's what I've been doing so far but the reason I wanted filters is because I really like the idea of trying to figure out how to make a shot work. Kind of like solving a problem and having the equipment there to do it. Otherwise I tend to just think "oh I'll take 5 exposures and figure it out later". It sort of takes away the thought behind it for me.

Also you can't really do long exposures without filters

evolutionqy7

The_Gatsby wrote: »

Also you can't really do long exposures without filters

Can't do long exposures when its bright

Not a big fan of long exposures now, especially for water, make it look very artificial to me. Whenever taking shots that have water in it, max exposure for me would be around 1 second.

Silva360

The_Gatsby wrote: »

You definitely could and that's what I've been doing so far but the reason I wanted filters is because I really like the idea of trying to figure out how to make a shot work. Kind of like solving a problem and having the equipment there to do it. Otherwise I tend to just think "oh I'll take 5 exposures and figure it out later". It sort of takes away the thought behind it for me.

Also you can't really do long exposures without filters

Be mindful that sometimes you simply cannot capture the dynamic range within a scene even when using filters. Watch your histogram and be prepared to bracket if necessary.

You can defo do long exposures without filters, you just need to wait for the light to fade (or hang out in a dark woodland!).

The_Gatsby

Silva360 wrote: »

Watch your histogram and be prepared to bracket if necessary.

I do and will continue to but it seems with filters a lot of times multiple exposures aren't needed.

Silva360 wrote: »

You can defo do long exposures without filters, you just need to wait for the light to fade (or hang out in a dark woodland!).

Obviously you can do long exposures without filters. I should have specified that I meant long/longer exposures where otherwise you wouldn't be able to

Adrian.Sadlier

I am considering getting a decent set of filters. I am torn between the Lee and Hitech offerings. I am saving up and know I will have to spend over €600 for a decent setup. The much longer exposure times are a must for what I am thinking of using them for. I'm a keen hobbyist, not a pro (as can be seen from from what I post here). I recently "upgraded" my car from a 19 year old Camry to a 10 year old 9-3 convertible. I prefer to spend my limited funds on photographic gear rather than wheels!

Anybody with experience of Lee v's Hitech - I would really value some "real life" feedback.

And as for the "milky water" shots that are still popular (unfortunately - some are brilliant, most are "me too"), well, let's just say I prefer milk in my tea, not my photos.

But I may live to regret saying that in a public forum, especially if I do eventually shell out the shekels for a good kit