Lilserenity
Well-known
Hello,
Along with the tripod, I have finally purchased the Lee RF75 system for my Leica M2 (and hopefully by the end of the week, an OM2.)
I went for this system because it's small, has the full range of Lee filters (which can be cut to order), the reputation of Lee filters is very good. Plus it has some good guides on the front of the filter holder to approximate the position of the film on the film plane so using Gradual ND's becomes somewhat more manageable on a non-TTL viewfinder. Mounted on a SLR you can clearly use the filters as you would normally.
I have not yet gone out and used the system, for that I am awaiting a couple of stepping rings (40mm to 40.5mm for my Canon 50mm, and 39mm to 40.5mm for my Ultron, when it comes back from Cosina in Japan) but I have a some Velvia ready and waiting to hopefully shoot with this weekend.
It might seem peculiar to want to use 35mm and a rangefinder with such a system but because it can be used on ultra wide angle lenses (down to 15mm with no vignetting I am told on 35mm) and can be mounted on lenses up to a 67mm diameter (so some Canon EF L zoom lenses with their 77mm diameter will need Lee's full 100mm system.)
First Impressions
I bought my kit from Robert White in Poole, England. The actual holder comes in a nice box (nice to know what your £92 went on!) and a really decent pouch which I did not expect, complete with a spare set of screws and caps and a screwdriver should you need to tighten things. The holder itself is made of strong plastic and it can hold up to two filters at a time, plus a polariser.
I did not buy the optional polariser which is designed for use on an RF as that is too fiddly for my liking, GNDs, NDs and combination grads like GND.9 to 81C are manageable but a PL filter seemed fraught with difficulties and seeing as I am using this system to almost universally shoot Velvia, I don't need more punch!
Attached to the back is the lens adapter, sizes from 39mm up to 67mm. I went for 40.5mm as I'm standardising on 40.5mm filters as it suits both my Canon Serenar 50mm and CV Ultron 39mm without having too much extra poking in the way of the viewfinder.
The lens adapter clips on to the back of the filter holder and screws into the filter thread on your lens, allowing you to use the adapter at angles that aren't horizonal, e.g. 45 degree tilts etc.
The filter holder can be adapted to take 1 filter alone. This appears to allow the use of a filter + PL filter on extreme wide angle lenses to minimise any vignetting.
Instructions wise, there is a 4" square piece of paper. But it's all pretty self explanatory, and on the back it lists RF75 filter packs and that you can order any Lee filter for the system, just say you want the 75mm size, not 100mm.
I have gone for a hard 0.6GND because I very rarely find use for 0.9 and 0.3 doesn't have the oomph I look for when using GNDs. There are then two gradiations, soft and hard. Hard was recommended to me as a starting point as it will be easier to align horizons of the position of the filter with a harder edge than the soft edged one to start with.
So, it's looking good on first impressions. The filter came in its own superb little pouch, which inside contains another soft lint free pouch with the filter in. The small lint free pouch doubles up as a cleaning cloth.
Weight wise, very very light.
The filter does obscure the lower bottom right of the viewfinder on my M2 but it's not awful and certainly not much worse than a 35mm + hood on my M2. However this is a trade off of using this system on a RF/non TTL camera.
This system could be used on medium format, large format and TLR cameras, so long as the lens the filters mount on is between 39mm to 67mm -- (though for smaller lenses than 39mm you could use a step up ring safely, though I have no burning ambition to use this system on my Summar!)
When I have photos of it all set up on my M2 (and soon OM2) I'll post them here and also the results and some form of conclusion as to what I think.
it's not cheap (compared to say a Cokin A filter system), but this is a specialist product, but you do get to use filters with a little more accuracy than a Cokin A system plus you get use of Lee's excellent filters. Cokin A/P GNDs are generally called neutral grey, because they can leave a colour cast, plus Lee tends to have much more sensible filters where as some of Cokin's can be a bit whacky -- and Cokin does not offer GND to Warming grads which are very useful.
More to follow!
Vicky
Along with the tripod, I have finally purchased the Lee RF75 system for my Leica M2 (and hopefully by the end of the week, an OM2.)
I went for this system because it's small, has the full range of Lee filters (which can be cut to order), the reputation of Lee filters is very good. Plus it has some good guides on the front of the filter holder to approximate the position of the film on the film plane so using Gradual ND's becomes somewhat more manageable on a non-TTL viewfinder. Mounted on a SLR you can clearly use the filters as you would normally.
I have not yet gone out and used the system, for that I am awaiting a couple of stepping rings (40mm to 40.5mm for my Canon 50mm, and 39mm to 40.5mm for my Ultron, when it comes back from Cosina in Japan) but I have a some Velvia ready and waiting to hopefully shoot with this weekend.
It might seem peculiar to want to use 35mm and a rangefinder with such a system but because it can be used on ultra wide angle lenses (down to 15mm with no vignetting I am told on 35mm) and can be mounted on lenses up to a 67mm diameter (so some Canon EF L zoom lenses with their 77mm diameter will need Lee's full 100mm system.)
First Impressions
I bought my kit from Robert White in Poole, England. The actual holder comes in a nice box (nice to know what your £92 went on!) and a really decent pouch which I did not expect, complete with a spare set of screws and caps and a screwdriver should you need to tighten things. The holder itself is made of strong plastic and it can hold up to two filters at a time, plus a polariser.
I did not buy the optional polariser which is designed for use on an RF as that is too fiddly for my liking, GNDs, NDs and combination grads like GND.9 to 81C are manageable but a PL filter seemed fraught with difficulties and seeing as I am using this system to almost universally shoot Velvia, I don't need more punch!
Attached to the back is the lens adapter, sizes from 39mm up to 67mm. I went for 40.5mm as I'm standardising on 40.5mm filters as it suits both my Canon Serenar 50mm and CV Ultron 39mm without having too much extra poking in the way of the viewfinder.
The lens adapter clips on to the back of the filter holder and screws into the filter thread on your lens, allowing you to use the adapter at angles that aren't horizonal, e.g. 45 degree tilts etc.
The filter holder can be adapted to take 1 filter alone. This appears to allow the use of a filter + PL filter on extreme wide angle lenses to minimise any vignetting.
Instructions wise, there is a 4" square piece of paper. But it's all pretty self explanatory, and on the back it lists RF75 filter packs and that you can order any Lee filter for the system, just say you want the 75mm size, not 100mm.
I have gone for a hard 0.6GND because I very rarely find use for 0.9 and 0.3 doesn't have the oomph I look for when using GNDs. There are then two gradiations, soft and hard. Hard was recommended to me as a starting point as it will be easier to align horizons of the position of the filter with a harder edge than the soft edged one to start with.
So, it's looking good on first impressions. The filter came in its own superb little pouch, which inside contains another soft lint free pouch with the filter in. The small lint free pouch doubles up as a cleaning cloth.
Weight wise, very very light.
The filter does obscure the lower bottom right of the viewfinder on my M2 but it's not awful and certainly not much worse than a 35mm + hood on my M2. However this is a trade off of using this system on a RF/non TTL camera.
This system could be used on medium format, large format and TLR cameras, so long as the lens the filters mount on is between 39mm to 67mm -- (though for smaller lenses than 39mm you could use a step up ring safely, though I have no burning ambition to use this system on my Summar!)
When I have photos of it all set up on my M2 (and soon OM2) I'll post them here and also the results and some form of conclusion as to what I think.
it's not cheap (compared to say a Cokin A filter system), but this is a specialist product, but you do get to use filters with a little more accuracy than a Cokin A system plus you get use of Lee's excellent filters. Cokin A/P GNDs are generally called neutral grey, because they can leave a colour cast, plus Lee tends to have much more sensible filters where as some of Cokin's can be a bit whacky -- and Cokin does not offer GND to Warming grads which are very useful.
More to follow!
Vicky
