24Jul Polaroid fader ND filter quick video test.
I’m still meandering around the California’s country side for another week and had a little free time yesterday to drive up to Mt Tamalpais State Park just north of San Francisco. At 2400 feet I though the peak would be high enough to keep the Bay Area fog from bothering me. It worked for a little while but eventually the fog drifted up high enough to start interfere with filming. I didn’t end up getting to film all of the test I wanted to because the fog kept misting up the lens filter.
The filter in use is the Cheap Polaroid Variable ND filter I’ve had for awhile. Sitting at the post office right now is my Light Craft Fader ND II filter that I ordered a few weeks back and as soon as I get home i’ll try and run through some back to back tests using both of these filters side by side. If you watch carefully when I’m adjusting the filter you can see a little bit of vignetting in the corners. This isn’t a big problem with normal focal lengths, but it does start to become very noticeable on wide angle lenses like the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8. I’ve been told that the Light craft Fader ND II models don’t have this problem or that it is a lot less noticeable. I’m interested to see if this is actually the case.
If you’re on the fence about spending more on a higher end Variable ND filter or going with something cheaper like the Polaroid Variable ND filter. I can say that I’ve been happy with my the Polaroid filter and that any Variable ND filter is better then nothing. If you don’t have $100 plus to spend on a higher end Variable ND filter, you’ll probably still be pretty happy something lower price. Do you really need to drive a Mercedes Benz or can you be comfortable in your Hyundai Accent? I’ll let you know how the Light Craft Fader ND II turns out once I get a chance to mess around with it. Unless something changes I wont be home until the first.
July 25th, 2011 at 9:09 am
I have the Light Craft Fader ND II filter. Extremely useful for the purpose Deejay illustrates. You would lose all that shallow DOF on sunny days without a filter and the variable ND is so useful to change the exposure on the fly. Even if you move the position of the camera slightly, you’ll either need to change the aperture or, using an ND, simply rotate the filter a bit.
As far as the Tokina 11-16, it works poorly on mine but I really wouldn’t use the Tokina for shallow DOF effect so its not really suitable for this lens even if there was no vignetting.
Some people have had problems on 100mm and higher lenses. However the ND has been very useful for fast primes in the range of 24mm to 50mm on my 7D. Just open the aperture as much as possible until the vignetting becomes an issue.
It does warm the color up so you will need to make adjustments unless you are looking for that effect.
July 25th, 2011 at 9:14 am
Tip: Buy the largest you can and use cheap ebay step-up adapters. Saves money and can help to avoid some vignetting on smaller diameter lenses.
July 25th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Looking forward to the other videos, I did a review of a ‘own brand’ ND Filter from a web-based retailer in the uk link here if you’re interested – http://youtu.be/boc8F4aPV8g
July 25th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Sigma 30mm f1.4, 62mm is such an odd filter size.
July 27th, 2011 at 9:30 am
Hey!
Great site I’ve been following you since you started posting vids on youtube. Any idea on when you’ll get around to testing these two filters side by side?
July 27th, 2011 at 9:39 am
I plan to start filming side by side shots this weekend when I get home from California.
July 27th, 2011 at 11:23 am
you da man! Thanks for all your help
August 18th, 2011 at 8:43 pm
[…] I checked my meter and eyeballed it. From this example it’s very easy to see that the Polaroid casts a blueish hue over the image. It isn’t horrible but it is very noticeable next to the […]
September 27th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Hey man, i wanna thank you for all you tests and tips. Actauly the ND Fader. keep testing i´ll watching
Greeting Chris from smal stinky Germany 🙂
October 7th, 2011 at 11:52 am
Hi.
question: how does it work? there are 18 steps + min and max written on the ring (so 20 in total).
the filter should be ND3, ND6, ND9, ND16, ND32, ND400 so 6 filter. is each step a 1/2 stop?
ND400 should be 10 stops (right?) and we have 20 steps on the ring (18+min&max) so each step should be 1/2 stop. am i right?
is it also right that: ND3=1stop ND6=2stops ND9=3stops ND16=4 stops ND32=5stops ND400=10stops?