P system cokin filters

Has anyone tried filters.. these "P" series filters.. are they any good.. is there any place where I can check out what effect they have.. I have one uv light filter.. but I cannot say I have noticed any major difference .. if any at all..

A UV filter is normally a round filter that screws onto the front of your lens. If it works properly, you will never see its effect on your photos.

Cokin filters are rectangular, and they fit into a rectangular filter holder, and they will slide up and down slightly, which is good if it happens to be a graduated neutral density filter. The filter holder needs an adapter that allows it to screw onto the front of your lens.

Cokin A tends to be the small size. Cokin P tends to be a larger size that happens to fit all of my important lenses. Cokin X is huge, and I have only dealt with one of those since they tend to be expensive.

---Bob Gross---

Here is Conkin's web site. It gives you everything you need to know.
Have been using these filters for many years and find them great.

http://cokin.com
Wayne

I find the only cokin filter that's really useful is the graduate ND filters. If you do ever want to use a graduated ND filter then cokin is the best to use, as the screw on graduated ND filters have a fixed horizon.

Edit - Actually I guess any of the graduated filters are useful for cokin's, but myself I only have the graduated ND one.

There are a number of companies that make grad ND filters compatible with the Cokin P holder. I use a Tiffen 4x6 with it.

i hve been using Cokin P filter for many many years now. I always find them to be very helpful, useful and inexpensive to buy. I used Linear Polarizer alot with my photographing.

I think cokin P system with 84mm is the lowest you'd want to go with, if you're serious about your filters. There are other brands of filters which are available for it, and unlike cokin filters they are made of glass and are multicoated.

For the record I have a Cokin P system that I purchased for use with a Canon EFS 17-85mm IS USM lens and at wide angle setting I can see the holder in the FOV and when a Cokin polariser is fitted it is even worse! Two things do not help 1)The system is screwed to a UV filter and so is further from the lens and 2)a 17mm focal length on a 20D fas a focal length equivalent to 27.2 and Cokin say it is only suitable for a focal length of 28!

Sorry about the slow response

thanks for the replies. I know this stuff is all very technical and its helpful to get peoples opinions...

I know jessops sell UV filters in the UK and they show two pictures on the front. one is with a filter and the other is without. Yet they are not the same size. when I tested them they had really no effect whatsoever

but these better filters maybe worth using

Cokin's graduated grey filters are reported to not actually be truly neutral. I use Singh-Ray's Galen Rowell Grads, which they make to order (any density, any grad, "You photographers know what your needs are better than we do.").

To work around this, many people have just cut off the outermost set of guides on the Cokin P holder. Of course, stacking filters is generally a poor idea, to be used only when unavoidable.

I have some cokin P filters, the main ones I use are the grads and the polariser, I do have coloured ones as well from when I shot film and used them when shoting black and white. As Jonthan pointed out when you use them on wide angle lenes you can get vinetting with the outside edges showing in the photograph. But I don't want to move up to the next size, if I am using my 17-40 at the 17mm end I do have a polariser one to fit the lens to same vinetting, as long as I take the UV of first as having both on can cause it as well. Any way in answer to your question I think they have there uses and would be worth getting. some start with the grads and a pol some of the others are a bit gimicky. If you shot on film then a warm up can be useful as well.