Built in ND filter......G5.....???

Just wondering where or why you would use the built in ND filter?
What does ND stand for?

I took several test shots with the filter on and it seems to cut the lighting in half....???

ND stands for Neutral Density and it emulates a gray piece of glass in front of the lens. You are exactly right in that it cuts the light to the sensor.

It has a few uses. The main one I hear is when you are shooting a waterfall and you want "angel hair" water. The ND filter will allow a longer shutter speed and still have a properly exposed shot.

Not used that often, but handy when you need it.

Hmmmm.....

So many buttons.......So little knowledge.

Thanks for the help!

I've never used the ND filter (not much need for it here in England), but I've been wondering whether it works by decreasing the sensitivity of the CCD? And if so, does it provide a 'cleaner' photo?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with ISO50 - I'm just curious.

kully, good question. I suppose it does decrease the sensitivity (I don't see how software could do it, since the highlights would be blown out in the capture) but I don't know how it would affect the quality of the photo.

Reeforbust, aside from its 'arty waterfall' uses, it's sometimes good to turn on in ridiculously bright sunlight and/or snow photos just to give the camera a wider range to choose from rather than pushing the exposure to a fast shutter speed and a small aperture. I like to think of it as sunglasses* for your camera, your camera doesn't have to squint to see when you turn on the ND filter. But it's very dark sunglasses, so don't put them on unless you really need 'em.

* though not polarized sunglasses, you'd need a polarizing filter for that, ha.

The G3 had also a ND-Filter built in. That was a real filter that was swung before the CCD. When enabling the ND-Filter you could hear it moving.
I don't know about the G5, but I guess that it isn't very much different.

wow, i just tried it, you *can* hear it on a G6, never noticed that. so yep, i guess it's a real nd filter that flips over the sensor.

I suppose it wouldn't affect the noise at all then.

It will not directly affect the noise, however remember that when using the ND filter, your shutter speed is much longer than if you did not use it. For this reason there will be an increase in noise. Longer exposure time = more noise.

This panos was shot using the ND filter so that I could increase my exposure time to the maximum of 15s. The result was that the 1-2 foot waves were greatly smoothed out. As Mike pointed out, I think the biggest use of this feature is for wispy water effects.

http://www.pbase.com …r/image/5414328​2/original

I use mine when doing close up work with a ring flash, it cuts down the excessive light if the flash is too close to the subject to compensate itself.

Phil

Perhaps the more traditional use for a ND filter was to reduce the light, so a larger
aperture could be used. This reduces the depth of field.

E.g. used to separate the subject from background, in portraiture.

Doesn't work quite so well in Digital because ...
1) Inherent great depth of field
2) In camera or software sharpening tends to counter the effect.

Still it helps a little.

Terry