Fotga 77 ND Fader Test

I picked up a cheapie variable ND filter on ebay ($16) and imo, it's one of the best cheapies out there. Brand name FOTGA. I bought the filter so I could shoot 1.4 or 1.8 in broad daylight with no issues and also to use as a strobist to keep shallow dof. I did a little test with ND Filter on/off with same settings. As you can see in the middle image, it is impossible to get a decent exposure at 1.4 even with my SB600 on it's lowest setting. All images are SOOC, no retouching, white balance, etc changed. You'll also notice, no strange color tint associated with the ND Filter like seen in other ebay cheapies. I'm psyched about this purchase.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/nola2t/81953738​66/

How'd your IQ fair? I like the comparisons though. Shot in daylight outside?

Why the 1/160 limit?

Russo09 wrote in post #15258981
How'd your IQ fair? I like the comparisons though. Shot in daylight outside?

I went outside just now to test this out, I didn't have time yesterday. Able to achieve a 5 step difference (f/8-f/1.4) at same shutter.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/nola2t/81971096​80/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/nola2t/81971605​14/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/nola2t/81972017​74/

SMP_Homer wrote in post #15259720
Why the 1/160 limit?

I shoot with a d90 and my flash sync speed is 1/200. I normally start off at 1/160 when doing strobist stuff as a decent start. Allows me some ambient, without totally making the background black in a setting like this. I kept it there because I wanted to have some lighting around the object to show the DOF of 1.4.

Overall, even after it's last test failing, I'm doubtful I'd ever really use a 30 second exposure in broad daylight and for $16 I'm really satisfied with how it performed in all my other tests. It'll do fine to play around with for the time being and give me a feeler if I ever want to move to big boy status with a true ND filter.

Looks great, except for what I'd want to use it for, which is those long daylight exposures lol For the cheap amount I might pick one up anyway to mess around with. Thanks for the comparisons!

Looks like a bit yellowish from the little information provide
Willing to see more!

Its more cool than anything, just a slight boost of temp warms it up very nice.


Its far from perfect but for the money paid, I'm satisfied. Any type of shot you'd like and I'll try it. This thread is an info thread so I'll try my best to make any ideas happen.

Not_a_Canon wrote in post #15261528
Its more cool than anything, just a slight boost of temp warms it up very nice.


Its far from perfect but for the money paid, I'm satisfied. Any type of shot you'd like and I'll try it. This thread is an info thread so I'll try my best to make any ideas happen.

Got u! And thx for you enthusiasm to help others out~
Do you have any 100% crop you can show?

100% crops, you got em. Unfortunately I deleted a bunch of the ones up top after I created the split image

CR is pretty heavy here, but its pretty normal shooting at 1.4 with the Sigma.

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Not_a_Canon wrote in post #15262203
100% crops, you got em. Unfortunately I deleted a bunch of the ones up top after I created the split image

CR is pretty heavy here, but its pretty normal shooting at 1.4 with the Sigma.

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still looks quite sharp to me.. seems to be good!
so it's less than 20 bucks for a 77mm ND..? good value!

You say it is the variable version.
Can you add a note on degree of ND you use in your image?
Do you have anything with max cut off of 400?

Check out the last photo in original post, shows it ramped up to 400.


I'd say it's pretty much unusable