Formatt GND filters

[CameraBuff]

Made a deal for a Cookin Z pro holder and 77mm adapter from another P.O.T.N. member and am looking at filters - I read all the posts and have a couple of questions?

Formatt (Hitech) filters - some say to get the hard vs soft gnd's from hitech since they are on the soft side anyway - Suggestions?

The site says the soft are for wide angle lenses and the hard for telephoto - I never heard this before; always thought it was based on shooting a certain horizon flat vs mountian for ex.

Last - the formatt site http://www.formatt.co.uk/stills-filters/filters/graduated-n-d/nd-grad-filter-graduated.aspx (http://www.formatt.co.uk/stills-filters/filters/graduated-n-d/nd-grad-filter-graduated.aspx) has 100mm which I assume are square and 100mm x 150mm 4 x 6? It says be careful what type you order for portrait or landscape. Would I order the portrait style? Anyone ever order from here for USA - Price looks great?

Appreciate any help?

[timeasterday]

I started off with 2-stop and 3-stop soft GND's and one 3-stop hard GND. I don't know about the wide angle vs telephoto thing, I have never heard that. I would recommend at least one or two soft GND's to use and one hard GND. So far I haven't had an occasion to use the hard style and I think it will be the least-used filter in my kit. You can get the Hitech filters here:

http://www.2filter.com/index.htm

More specifically, look for the 4x5 Hitechs on this page:

http://www.2filter.com/prices/Hitech/Hitech4x4.html

Those are the ones I got for my Cokin Z-Pro. Hope that helps!

[CameraBuff]

Thanks, if I don't get a response on the formatt web site questions I better just order one filter from 2filter.com. rather than order the wrong size filter.

[Lowner]

I use a set of 3 GND filters which are a mixture of hard and soft. To be completely frank I can never tell which I've used after the event.

The softness effect is aperture dependent and shooting landscapes I'm generally working around f/11 to maximise DoF, maybe thats why.

[CameraBuff]

Thanks, I'm thinkin of a .6 soft, .9 soft and .9 hard depending on the price and my budget.