My journey with the 10 stop ND

[MattUK]

I'm not even sure how I'd tell if I had light leakage or not...

[dan123]

thanks matt, With the IR cast B+w is the only way, colour jsut looks purely awfull, I get a load of noise, had a 10 min shot, that was awfull, also hence the forthcoming upgrade to a 5d, lol, add dust spots to the equation and youve got a full nighmare image, lol

[dan123]

Lens flare matt, and small spots covering the shot, lee have the foam gasget with cutss all trhe light leakege my hi tech now has one and has helped it a lot,

[jools-elliott]

Originally Posted by jimmyosram

Thanks for the guidance Jools. I can't justify the £300.00 for a Lee set just yet, but I understand what you are saying.

My gear:
Canon 60D
Tokina 11-16 f2.8
Heliopan 10 stop

No problems Jimmy.

According to the spec of your lens, it's 77mm on the filter thread. You should be able to get some grads from both Lee and HiTech for this.

Instead of buying new, try to find some used ones. Ffordes get them in pretty often, both the holder and the filters.

Whatever make you end up with, I would suggest that you go for a 2 and 3 stop if you can't afford a "set". That'll give you enough.

But back to your original question. In the past, I have used the filter pouch from my Lee Filters as a grad. I've used a piece of card and even my hand!

I can post an image if you want to show that it's possible.

As I said, it's a bit haphazard and when the lighting is gorgeous then you can't take any chances.

[thefonz78]

Are Formatt any good then? Better than some welding glass i'd imagine I use to deliver to the factory (if you can call it that) it is a tiny unit on an industrial estate in the Welsh Valleys. I should have asked for some from the stores boys.

[jools-elliott]

They are better than Cokin!

I took a lady out for a day to teach her some photography. She had some Cokin grads with her. It came time to take a photo and when she did you could immediately see some horrid colour cast over her image.

The only issue with the HiTech filters is the holder. it's not as flexible as the Lee one.

But you can always buy a Lee holder and put HiTech grads in it.

[James Blonde]

I'll try to post some pics of the light leakage I've experienced on my Cokin IR filter - it should be representative of the problems you'd likely experience if you have a light leakage issue.

Big Stopper has arrived.... oooooooo pretty.......

[MattUK]

I've fixed my light leakage:

[donoreo]

Originally Posted by thefonz78

Are Formatt any good then? Better than some welding glass i'd imagine I use to deliver to the factory (if you can call it that) it is a tiny unit on an industrial estate in the Welsh Valleys. I should have asked for some from the stores boys.

Not bad actually. Dan has the older version of the ND, they have since come out with a new one. I have both (they gave me a discount to upgrade to the new one since there was an optical flaw in my old one).

[jimmyosram]

Day 4
had to go to Whitehaven today, so on the way back I went through the Lake District. I wanted to try the 10 stopper in full daylight to see what effect I could get. The water was quite ripply and not casting a reflection so the filter certainly smoothed it out a bit.

To be honest, I should have waited until the sun was on the hills in the background, but I would have been waiting all day as the weather was closing in.