As I upgrade some of my gear, I am in need of some new filters. I am curious if anyone here has experience with any of these variable ND filters? I am looking at the K&F Concept ND2-ND400 (1-9 stops) on Amazon. I don't use ND filters that often but I'm considering the convenience of not having to stack filters when I might want to achieve a specific shutter speed. The price is definitely right at $35 so I'm wondering if there is some sort of unacceptable side effects of this filter....
I don't have experience with this particular filter but the cheap price raises a little bit of a red flag for me. Cheap variable ND's tend to have one or two deal-breaking problems, mainly color-shift (especially during long exposures) and the so-called "X-pattern" where the overlapping polarizers create a nasty effect you can't fix in post. I guess the price is low enough that it won't hurt testing it out :)
I can however recommend the NiSi True-Color VND's, they feature the least color shift I've ever seen in variable ND's, they are hugely popular with the filmmaking crowd for their quality, I have one of those in the 82mm size for my Canon RF 15-35mm and I can verify that they are truly great.
I don't have experience with this particular filter but the cheap price raises a little bit of a red flag for me. Cheap variable ND's tend to have one or two deal-breaking problems, mainly color-shift (especially during long exposures) and the so-called "X-pattern" where the overlapping polarizers create a nasty effect you can't fix in post. I guess the price is low enough that it won't hurt testing it out :)
I can however recommend the NiSi True-Color VND's, they feature the least color shift I've ever seen in variable ND's, they are hugely popular with the filmmaking crowd for their quality, I have one of those in the 82mm size for my Canon RF 15-35mm and I can verify that they are truly great.
Thanks. That is exactly the kind of feedback I am looking for. I'll scrap the cheap one and look forward from there. When the price is too good to be true, it's usually too good to be true :)
I have little experience. I had a cheap variable ND filter a few years ago (I forget the brand). I think it was 8 stops. It was passable through the low end of the range, but it was uneven/unusable in the higher range. I would be careful.
I'm definitely commenting out of my league on this, as I'm still a neophyte to filters generally and can barely describe what any of them do. But for what it's worth, I've been using one of K&F Concepts budget variable ND filters for my Canon M200 because it's the only way I've so far been able to do any kind of daytime long-exposure photography with any success. I have noticed some minor color shifts or introduction of floating abstractions when using it, but nothing that (so far) I have had trouble compensating for in post. I think if I was more accomplished a photographer, I might be irritated with it, but as a casual shooter who is better with his software than with his camera, I find it to punch above its weight for my needs.
I'd say that about K&F Concepts products generally. They seem targeted at the "enthusiast" market that I'm in more than the serious professional crowd I imagine veterans like you guys shoot within. For me, they represent genuine upgrades. For others, I'm sure they would be compromising retrogrades except for niche use cases.
I'm definitely commenting out of my league on this, as I'm still a neophyte to filters generally and can barely describe what any of them do. But for what it's worth, I've been using one of K&F Concepts budget variable ND filters for my Canon M200 because it's the only way I've so far been able to do any kind of daytime long-exposure photography with any success. I have noticed some minor color shifts or introduction of floating abstractions when using it, but nothing that (so far) I have had trouble compensating for in post. I think if I was more accomplished a photographer, I might be irritated with it, but as a casual shooter who is better with his software than with his camera, I find it to punch above its weight for my needs.
I'd say that about K&F Concepts products generally. They seem targeted at the "enthusiast" market that I'm in more than the serious professional crowd I imagine veterans like you guys shoot within. For me, they represent genuine upgrades. For others, I'm sure they would be compromising retrogrades except for niche use cases.
I think I'm gonna go ahead and buy one based on your comments. I'm only outta 35 bucks if it's crap. I'll test it and post results. That would be a good chance for me to geek out with some camera gear.
My problem is that I have a bag of filters that are all too big for the gear I'm using now. I abandoned the world of SLR gear after I stopped doing the journalism/sports side gig. I don't think these adjustable filters even existed when I was shooting daily. Looks like I'm shooting with a Sony version of your Canon. Your lens takes 49mm filters, which is kinda nice. My kit 16-50 uses 40.5mm but my 55-210 uses 49mm. I think I'm just gonna buy a 40.5 to 49mm step up ring so I can share filters across those two lenses.
I only have a graduated (not variable) ND filter, but FWIW I was able to achieve a 2-second daytime exposure by stacking two polarizers -- rotating them with respect to each other seemed to vary the amount of blockage, as well as amount of color-shifting.
$35 seems a modest investment to experiment with and see if the technique is useful enough to justify upgrading in the future (sure is easy to spend other people's money!)
This filter arrived today so I set up a short simple test to check it out. Its overcast and drizzly here today so that made for a perfect outdoor setup without having to worry about light changing too much. I set up on a tripod just inside my garage and composed a photo into the driveway. I set the camera in aperture priority at f/11 and got on the side angle side of the 16-50mm lens.
I shot a reference photo with no filter to start with. At f/11, the shutter speed set itself to 1/50".
I installed the filter and shot nine more photos. Each of those shot on these shutter speeds:
The filter claims 9 stops of difference from one end to the other. I got about 5 stops in this test. So... that's either incorrect OR I actually had light changing outside that I couldn't see with my own eyes, which is entirely possible. I guess I need to set up this same test inside and see what the stop difference end up being when the light is actually stable.
As for the image quality, I could not see any anomalies that would keep me from wanting to use a filter like this. I looked at each of the images magnified to 100% and didn't see any artifacting that I could contribute to the filter. I have included a 100% view of the last image I shot with the ND filter in its darkest configuration...
