Need some ND Filter Advice

[manaheim]

Hi all... so I was wanting to play with some daylight motion blurs and such and realize I think I need some ND filters.

So, some questions...

I see things like this...

Tiffen 77mm Indie Neutral Density Filter Kit W77INDNDKT B&H

Can I stack filters? That strikes me as probbaly kind of dangerous from an optical perspective and I'm running very high quality glass on a D800, but if it works it seems like an economical and flexible solution.

What about something like this? This seems quite a bit more expensive and an unknown brand to me, but seems like a nice idea at least in concept:

Fader Filters 77mm HD Variable Neutral Density Filter HD-VND-77


I'm also a little confused about 64x vs. 0.9 filters or whatever, but I can go look that up I guess.

I also see a few things like this:

Hoya 77mm Pro 1 Digital Neutral Density 64x Filter XD77ND64 B&H

6 stops seems pretty healthy and relatively economical, but I wonder a bit about that...



Anyway, any thoughts or suggestions would be very helpful. Thanks all!

 

[pgriz]

I'll be looking over your shoulder. Because I "need" the same thing.

 

[usayit]

My personal preferences....

* I don't like to stack if possible.
* I don't like Variable ND filters. They are essentially two polarizers back to back (see first point). Some have color casts. OK quality ones are more expensive than high quality single ND filters.
* I don't have a need for ND filters that are relatively close in density. I'm going to need something "mild" when I want to shoot at f/1 in daylight. Or going to need something "dense" for long exposures on a tripod in daylight. I'm not going to need to get down to the granularity of a stop. As such kits that have something like a 1,2,3,4 etc stop ND filters seem awfully overkill. Especially since you will more than likely stack (see first point) to get to a high dense ND equivalent.
* I have a 3 stop and a 10 stop. I've never needed anything else.

I generally stick with the higher end B+W filters. Fortunately, most of my lenses are small so the 77mm size wasn't necessary and the cost was slightly lower. I do use step up rings.

 

[Alex_B]

Using B+W ... and very happy with them. (Not just because I used to work for the company which makes the b+w glass )

 

[usayit]

Curious... who makes their glass? Scott? Corning? Hoya?

 

[Alex_B]

Schott .. I am currently living in Jena, the city where Schott and Zeiss were founded and still produce part of their respective product line today.

 

[usayit]

Cool! Didn't know Schott made their glass.

 

[Alex_B]

http://www.schneiderkreuznach.com/pdf/filter/b+w_filter_handbook.pdf

 

[manaheim]

This is great, guys. Thanks. usayit, a lot of what you say resonates with me. I suspect I'm in the same category where granular options aren't going to be a huge need for me.