 Pixalo Photography Community |
|
Welcome to the Pixalo Photography Community. As a Guest you are free to browse the site, but see what extras you get as a Member here.
|
|
|
|
7dayshop Variable ND (Neutral Density) Filter 52-86mm
|
|
|
|
Reviews
|
Views
|
Date of last review
|
|
2
|
5151
|
Tue May 3, 2011
|
|
 |
|
Recommended By
|
Average Price
|
Average Rating
|
|
100% of reviewers
|
£33.98
|
8.0
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Description:
|
Accept no compromise, the 7dayshop Variable ND filter is the only ND filter you will ever need! Not only will it save you time, money and space but it will also allow you a greater degree of creativity!
We love things that make life simpler and the 7dayshop Variable ND filter offers much less fuss than having to carry around a full set of ND filters, therefore you are more likely to achieve your desired shot a lot faster and more easily.
If you have ever wanted to achieve the 'blur motion' effect such as the often seen ‘smoky waterfall’, ‘cloud movement’ or ‘rushing people’ amongst many other movement based images then owning one of these handy tools will open up new doors of creativity, who knows maybe even a prize winning shot?!
The Variable ND allows you to continuously control the amount of light entering the lens by as much as 8 stops of density which will:
make long exposures more possible
allow for better close up flash work
make selective focusing simpler
This piece of photographic genius can only be described as a 'kit bag essential'. Now get out there and experiment with it!
More info
Superb quality glass
Supplied in a tough, protective plastic box
Filter includes inner mounting ring allowing for further filter attachment
Handy index markings for exact adjustment
No loss of sharpness or colour degradation
Perfect for landscapes, portraiture, archeticture and much more…
Neutral Density benefits
ND filters are among those tools which have become indispensable by demanding photographers. They offer the possibility to achieve otherwise unachievable results as they are the real sunglasses for your camera. Typically, ND filters are used when shooting in bright light such as strong sunshine, snowy mountains or on white beaches.
ND's filter the entire visible spectrum evenly, allowing light reduction - reducing the amount of light reaching the CCD, film or tape, without altering the relative spectral distribution of the energy, thus without influence on colour temperature, colour balance or contrast. For this reason they are often referred to as neutral or grey filters.
NOTE:
Some vignetting may occur when used with some wide angle lenses, especially when combined with full frame cameras. We suggest you experiment with the positioning of the subject, focal length etc to erradicate the vignetting. That’s the beauty of shooting in the digital age after all! (no offence to the analogue users)
However, if you are not 101% happy then please refer to the 7dayshop.com 'product promise' as stated below.
|
|
Keywords:
|
7dayshop, variable, ND, filter
|
|
|
|
|
Author
|
|
Rob Barron
Loves the place
Registered: September 2006
Location: Poole, Dorset
Posts: 7225
|
|
Review Date: Sun April 10, 2011
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £33.95
| Rating: 8
|
|
Pros:
|
Excellent price, very effective
|
|
Cons:
|
Not useable at very darkest level
|
|
Review of the 2-8x Variable ND Filter.
This is not an exhaustive review, more a first look but I hope it will be helpful to others thinking about getting one. Mine arrived this morning after just 5 days so no issues there at all.
Housed in a decent plastic case, the item feels quality. It rotates smoothly without any looseness at all, very nicely engineered.
I took the following photos simply out of bedroom window and at f/4 so that I could get the max range of shutter speeds. All have been resized and saved for web at 90% but no adjustments at all have been made to the photos for obvious reasons.
It is sunny today and I was able to get 1/3200 sec without the filter:
When I added the filter (77mm thread on my 24-105mm lens) it was immediately obvious that using it at the widest end would give vignetting in all four corners as the lens could 'see' the filter housing. However, this disappears by 35mm on a full frame sensor.
I opened the filter to its lightest point and it was only 1 stop down, that is better than the stated limits of 2-8 so happy with that. The first photo was taken at 1/1600 sec:
I darkened slightly and took this at 1/800 sec (2 stops) which is fine and looks pretty much the same lighting as the first shot, as it should be:
All absolutely fine so far. I didn't go down through every level as it wasn't necessary but I dropped down to 1/100 sec which is 5 stops down from filterless exposure. Still no problems at all:
Things started to get a little less perfect when I went down to 1/30 sec, roughly 7 stops down:
Although it is generally ok, the sky is not as even, darker on the left and lighter on the right.
I then went down to 1/4 second. Keep in mind this is 10 stops down so is outside the manufacturer's stated range and so is beyond the remit of this filter:
As you can see, it is unuseable at its fullest darkness. But I must stress that is well beyond where it is supposed to be effective. The one at 7 stops down is very rescue-able in Photoshop or whatever but beyond that would be pretty hard to use effectively.
Summary:
Is this as good as the one you can buy for £110? No, probably not. But is it worth the £34 inc postage that this one costs? Undoubtedly so in my humble opinion.
It is far easier to use this than to use a square filter in a holder. Why? Well, a couple of reasons:
1) In a less than perfect filter holder, it is difficult to do such a long exposure as this is designed for without getting stray light ingression from around the filter. With a ring mounted filter, you get no light ingression around the filter.
2) You can't autofocus or even manually focus with a Big Stopper filter on as you can't see through it. With a variable ND filter, you can focus and compose the shot with the filter set lighter, then just rotate it to get the longer shutter speed you want and away you go. It makes things MUCH easier.
I hope this basic review at least gives you some idea of its worth. I haven't taken it out and done a 'milky waters' shot or anything like that as this wasn't what i wanted to show in the review. I just wanted to let people know whether it was splashing out on.
Cheers,
Rob
|
|
|
|
chrisa
Loves the place
Registered: May 2007
Location: Bournemouth
Posts: 4438
|
|
Review Date: Tue May 3, 2011
|
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £34.00
| Rating: 8
|
|
Pros:
|
Cheap, Works
|
|
Cons:
|
Filter thread at top is larger
|
|
Arrived in under a week from 7 day shop.
Would agree with Robs results about pushing beyond the limits - producing the odd colour.
Seems to be fine when used within it's 2-8 stop limits, which are marked on the filter.
Not noticed any AF issues personally as was composing at lighter end of range, and mainly use manual focus anyway.
Price is excellent for a 78mm filter. Especially as that included postage.
Only minor bad thing is that to add another filter (eg grad nd) I'd have to buy another Cokin filter adapter ring to use the ND filter. As the filter thread on non-lens end of the filter is larger than the one on the lens.
|
|
|
|
|
|
All times are GMT +1. The time now is 00:34.
;)
;)
;)
