Gah! Vent on $$$ of filters!

dcmoody23 · Oct 23, 2010

Bitter Jeweler said:
You make it as expensive as you want it to be.

Differentiate between what you need to do what you do right now, and what you want to be able to do in the future. Have you pushed the limits of your gear already? Is your creativity hampered by not having all those extras?

Something I have learned over the years: Sometimes you learn more, by being limited with your tools, than you do by having all possible tools available to you.

Great advice - much appreciated, highly agreed with.

I have been thinking about that too, and so I'm pondering skipping out completely on the 0.3s and 0.6s, and everything for the 52mm for now and just getting (2) 0.9 NDs, a circular polarizer, and (maybe) a warming filter for now and then expanding from that point.

dcmoody23 · Oct 23, 2010

Ooh and I'm surprised that nobody has broken out the old cliche about the tires on the Ferrari, or the billion dollar house with a makeshift driveway, or whatever other ones you've heard

GooniesNeverSayDie11 · Oct 23, 2010

The only filters you need are ND, Graduated ND, and polarizer. The first two can be ona Cokin P system that is fairly inexpensive, you could buy several filters and an adapter for both filter sizes for probably $125-150 and then buy two good Polarizers for probably $175.I would skip the UV and warming filters. dSLR sensors are already UV protected. Use a hood as your protection. ( Unless you shoot in the sand dunes or saltwater beaches quite often ) And you can add warmth more precisely in post production.

All my lenses are 77mm. Just happens that thats typically the size of the best lenses ( aside from extremely long lenses and perhaps macro lenses which I don't really need filters on anyway ). While they are more expensive to buy in that size, they also work across all of my lenses. While I wouldn't buy a cheap lens over a good one based on filter size, if you are torn between two similar lenses, and one has a compatible filter size, go with that one.