39mm Graduated ND Filter

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chris.simpson15

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Apr 1, 2005
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Does anyone know of any supplier of one of these for my 35mm Summicron ASPH Lens? From enquiries so far neither Hoya nor B+W do one in this size. Grateful for any help.
 
Step-up ring

Step-up ring

I heard B+W will do anything in a filter if you pay them, ie they take custom orders.

However, it's cheaper and easier to buy a step up ring. Since you're going to take time to align the horizon with the grad ND anyway, using a step-up ring seems quite in order.

Wai Leong
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chris.simpson15 said:
Does anyone know of any supplier of one of these for my 35mm Summicron ASPH Lens? From enquiries so far neither Hoya nor B+W do one in this size. Grateful for any help.
Click to expand...
 
Chris, Anders... I have never used a graduated ND filter. How do you plan to use the filter without an ability to preview the results in the viewfinder?
 
That was my question. An ND would work fine on my Spotmatic. I don't understand the use with an rf.

But then i don't understand a lot of things.

Ted
 
Imagining how I might use a gradND, it might be a landscape with a bright sky to be tamed, with maybe some darker vegetation lower down. Reasonably careful alignment of the scene and filter would be good, and I expect the camera would be supported by a tripod for this. One might turn the grad filter to match the angle of the horizon, adjust the camera so the horizon passes through the middle of the frame, and click away. Can't shift a screw-in filter up and down anyway, I suppose.

There was a good illustrated short article in Pop Photo a few years back that impressed me. The example landscape's foreground was sunlit desert and there were shadowed cliffs in the background. Bright blue sky too. So how to deal with the wild contrast? They shot two exposures of the scene, one for cliff shadow detail, and one for the sunlit parts. Scanned the negs and combined the appropriate parts of each exposure in Photoshop. A grad filter couldn't have done it, as the different areas were quite irregular in shape, but these could be separated/masked in software. Now THIS method would work fine with an RF camera!
 
My misstake

My misstake

I think we might be talking about different things?

On my SLR I used a Graduated filter to darken the sky etc. This filter, which was a piece of square plastic in a holder, was dark in the top and gradualy cleared in the bottom. You could slide it up/down in the holder. It could have nice effect on pictures but you really need to view thru the lens to compose properly. Honestly I would not recommend one for your rangefinder. Results will be very random.

Anders
 
Thanks for all your comments guys. I have used grad NDs in the past on SLRs for mainly landscapes to obtain more detail and colour in a bright sky - very effective. They 'used' to be available as a screw on with a rotating bezel which permited the graduated part of the filter to be rotated depending on whether you are shooting in landscape or portrait. They can also obtained as square drop-in filters into a filter holder e.g. Lee/Cokin. I only want the screw on for simplicity, the Lee-type filter holder is too cumbersome if you are traveling lightweight.

Exposure is simple for a 'basic' exposure, just use the meter as is. The Grad ND (assuming your orientation is to reduce light from a bright sky), reduces the light intensity and you get a more balanced exposure. Experiment of course as you can get some pretty dramatic shots from a cloudy sky by underexposure without loosing detail in the landscape.

I have located a specialist filter provider who claim 'all is possible' so I shall contact them tomorrow. Web address is:

www.srbfilm.co.uk


Thanks again.
 
To answer the question of how do you use a Grad ND on a RF, in my view(!) it is a matter of visualisation through the viewfinder. Bear in mind the graduated ND part fades progressivley to neutral halfway across the filter so the potential for exposure error is marginal within the rule of thirds. I have had very few lost shots using this type of filter (on an SLR I grant you), rather than the drop in type, and feel the benefits outweight the disadvantages.

Regards,

Chris
 
The short answer is to set the Grad ND filter horizontal to the cameras orientation to the horizon (Landscape or portrait). This is obvious when you look at the Grad ND Filter, being grey in one half and clear in the other. The potential complication comes if the horizon is not horizontal to the cameras orientation. But this is overcome from looking through the viewfinder and making the judgement and then making any minor corrections as necessary. In practice an error of 10-15 degrees is not apparent because of fade from ND to clear.

Hope that makes sense!
 
Seems my supposition in my previous post above was about right... I still wonder how abrupt the transition is between ND and clear... It could be a sharp line across the middle of the filter that would not appear sharp on film due to the line being so close it's way out of focus. Or at the other extreme it could be an even gradual transition only reaching full ND at one side of the filter. Or some steeper but less-than-sharp transition! Never actually seen one these beasts, but I imagine that there might be all of the above options available... :)
 
With the ND the transition is fairly gradual so in normal landscape circumstance you cannot identify such a filter has been used. Colour grads are different and greater care needs to be taken as the transition is obvious. These are not my forte' but I have experimented.

Regards,

Chris
 
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