Quick test of the Light Craft Workshop (LCW) Fader ND

I posted this inside of another thread, but I thought it may benefit some looking for an affordable Variable ND filter if I just made a new thread, so here it is.

Recently, I purchased the Light Craft Workshop Fader MkII variable ND filter for a 77mm filter thread. After doing a lot of research, I decided to buy this from amazon because it was around $130 and I had a $100 gift card burning a hole in my pocket. The research told me that these didn't do too well as far as sharpness at focal lengths longer than 200mm and that they showed a dark cross pattern in photos shot at wide ranges (less than 35mm on FF) Since I will mostly use this on my 24-70mm 2.8L, I thought that I could live with the above caveats.

I've had it almost a month now, and I haven't tried it out yet, so today, I did some testing to see how bad the above caveats were. Come to find out, they weren't so bad.

The thing that is nice about this filter is that on the 77mm model, the front (rotating part) is at 82mm wide to minimize vignetting. You'll notice at 10mm (16mm FF equiv), there is barely any, if not no vignetting at all.

There are some markings that show you how many stops you're blocking. The ring doesn't 'click' when you pass each stop, but it's easy enough to use. The quality seems to be pretty nice and it comes with a plastic case with an 82mm pinch cap (remember, the outer ring is larger than the inside ring, so my Canon cap won't fit), and it has a little string to attach the lens cap to the camera if you're so inclined.

I knocked through these tests pretty quick, but here's what I did: I setup a tripod (not the most stable one - the cheap $100 Induro with skinny legs) with my 7D and my 100-400L, 70-200L MK2, 24-70L, and 10-22 EFs. I also did a shot at 24mm on my 5D with the 24-70L as that's the widest lens I have that will go on the 5D at the moment.

Below are some of the tests I shot. I shot these RAW and put them through ACR and converted them to PNG files and resized them for the web. From what I'm seeing, I'm definitely going to keep this filter. I can't wait to try it out on some waterfalls.

Camera: 5D
Lens: 24-70 2.8L @24mm
Fader at 8 stops

Thanks for the review. Is there any way I can request for you to do a shot in midday sun with the 5d and 85L and possibly using one of your lights for a portrait? I was going to pick up the Singh Ray (probably still will) but it'd be nice to see an example just incase. I usually only have seen landscape shots using it.

You'll get much better test results moving outside. Something about shooting these things inside messes with them a little.

ni$mo350 wrote in post #12389216
Thanks for the review. Is there any way I can request for you to do a shot in midday sun with the 5d and the 85L and possibly using one of your lights for a portrait? I was going to pick up the Singh Ray (probably still will) but it'd be nice to see an example just incase. I usually only have seen landscape shots using it.

Here's a quick shot I hacked off at 3:30 ET in a bright overhead sun (which is something we haven't seen around here in months!) This is with my 5D Mk1 and 85L Mk2. I shot it at f/1.2 at 1/80sec at ISO 100. The Fader ND was set to the full 8 stops. I focused on the frog's eye. I apologize for the sun-bleached subject - I'm home alone!

I'll set up a studio light shortly and take a shot when someone comes home.

Thanks for doing that and totally understand about the sun haha. most of my family lives in Cheviot. It looks like it still retains pretty good IQ (without pixel peeping anyways). I've read that pushing the 8 stops is usually beyond what most people suggest doing anyways and best to keep it below 6 stops before it has any major affect on vignetting and IQ loss. I add a slight vignette to most of my shots anyways so that doesn't bug me too much but I was concerned about IQ/sharpness and color since I'll mainly be using it for portraits.

Here's a "studio" shot. By Studio shot, I mean, I put a 430EX II on a stand with a small shoot-through umbrella about 3-4 feet in front of the subject about 45 degrees camera left and the flash was at full power. I focused on the eye that is camera left. Here's the exif on the photo:

Canon 5D Mk1 with 85L Mk2
ISO: 160
Shutter Speed: 1/200 (the max sync speed with my triggers)
Aperture: f/1.2
Fader is set to 8 stops (full strength for this unit)

Without further ado, Mr. Potatohead! (sorry, the wife won't be home for a while and she's camera shy)

Actually that's perfect. Very interesting as I don't see much to complain about even fully locked at 8 stops. Sharpness is obviously there so I appreciate the testing of it. I might have to order this little guy on Friday and give it a go.

studio shot looks great, just as long as the ND is sharp I'm good. And that studio shot looks sharp. Digging my Fader for outdoor with alot light ie- easier AF and some nice background to extreme bokeh

This is the link to the company that made my filter:

Light Craft Workshop

Apparently, they have a Fader ND "Ultra" that provides 9-12 stops if you need it. Holy cow!
I've added this website to the first post.

Could you redo those as JPEG? They take forever (partly due to the file size) to download as .PNG, partly due to the file sizes involved, even on a fast connection.

pnmd wrote in post #12391421
studio shot looks great, just as long as the ND is sharp I'm good. And that studio shot looks sharp. Digging my Fader for outdoor with alot light ie- easier AF and some nice background to extreme bokeh

If the weather cooperates tomorrow or Friday, I'm thinking I'm going to drive up north to some of the nicer waterfalls in the area and test this filter out. I'm loving the fact that I only need one filter, and I can set it to 2 stops, compose and focus, and then set it to 8 stops with minimal effort. When I had my ND400 it was a bugger because I had to compose and focus, and then screw the filter on without moving the camera too much.

I'm also dying for my next studio session. I've been shooting at f/8 - f/16 on average with my studio lights. I'm dying to get the 85L wide open with a good model in good lighting (if you can call my lighting skills good.....)

Jon wrote in post #12391789
Could you redo those as JPEG? They take forever (partly due to the file size) to download as .PNG, partly due to the file sizes involved, even on a fast connection.

Sure - it probably doesn't help that I'm hosting these shots on my own server using my residential internet service......

I tend to post my shots in PNG because it seems like they are better quality than the JPGs I've been posting. If there's a better way to convert photos for the web, I'd love to hear it.

Uncropped (in JPG)

Yep. Those come up much faster . . . and the IQ is ample to demonstrate the filter's capabilities.

genzbenz wrote in post #12391795
If the weather cooperates tomorrow or Friday, I'm thinking I'm going to drive up north to some of the nicer waterfalls in the area and test this filter out. I'm loving the fact that I only need one filter, and I can set it to 2 stops, compose and focus, and then set it to 8 stops with minimal effort. When I had my ND400 it was a bugger because I had to compose and focus, and then screw the filter on without moving the camera too much.

I'm also dying for my next studio session. I've been shooting at f/8 - f/16 on average with my studio lights. I'm dying to get the 85L wide open with a good model in good lighting (if you can call my lighting skills good.....)

Actually, with the 7D, you should be able to have the filter set at its strongest density and compose/focus with Live View...LV will see right through the filter in decent enough light. I often stack my 10-stop with a polarizer for a total of 12 stops...the 5D2 LV has no problem with it...I suspect your 7D shouldn't either. Just another option to consider...

Jon wrote in post #12391955
Yep. Those come up much faster . . . and the IQ is ample to demonstrate the filter's capabilities.

Awesome! I'm still relatively new to photography, and I haven't quite mastered the part about adjusting the photos for different outputs. Its one of the many aspects of photography I'm trying to learn.