Filter suggestions

I just purchased a Canon 10-18mm lens. I never had a wide angle lens like this and I am looking forward in using my new toy. I am looking to outfit the lens with a hood and a set of filers. The filters I am thinking about are the CPL, UV, variable fader, ND8. I looked on ebay and found several filters, many sold from China. Some of these names I have never heard of and some names I have.


Fotga
Neewer
Vivitar Series 1
Promaster
Tiffen

I am looking for suggestions on outfitting my lens on a budget. Thank you for your help.

Heya,

I would suggest you pull back a bit, and don't spring for filters and go nuts. You need to honestly have a need for a specific filter for it to be a good idea. Cheap filters give you cheap results. Sloppy glass and resin will ruin images, heavy color cast, aberration, lack of sharpness, IQ hits all over. It takes high quality filters to not have a significant impact on your image quality. Those $20 filters are big red flags for what not to buy.

A CPL is only needed if you're having issues with reflective surfaces. If you're not, then don't put one on there. Especially on an ultrawide, you'll see all kinds of issues with an ultrawide and CPL as angle is too wide and the effect of the CPL will not cover the whole angle of view so you'll see funky skies. Keep that in mind.

UV is an absolute waste of time. You're not shooting film. The lens hood and front element are tougher than any filter you're going to have on there. Save your money.

Variable faders are interesting, but a high quality one is more than your lens, and a low quality one, well, might as well just smudge jelly on your lens and call it a day. I would pass.

ND8. Why ND8? NF filters are very useful. I would however suggest that having a goal for them is what you get them for. A 3 stop ND filter is useful. But, why only 3 stop? What about 6 stop? 10 stop? My point is, what's your goal with an ND filter? Long exposure? How long?

If you want to do this on a budget, then reduce how many filters you're buying and eliminate the things that are not going to be useful. There are cost-effective filters out there.

Look at:

Marumi
Haida
B+W
Hoya

Haida makes really great filters on the cheap, worth checking out. Same glass as B+W with less cost. You can get a 10 stop Haida PROII series for like $60, and it's well worth it. For CPL, take a look at Marumi DHG, top notch quality without all the bloated cost of some other brands.

Again, you may not actually need most of these, at all, unless you have a goal that requires them.

Very best,

sffire wrote in post #17888114
I just purchased a Canon 10-18mm lens. I never had a wide angle lens like this and I am looking forward in using my new toy. I am looking to outfit the lens with a hood and a set of filers. The filters I am thinking about are the CPL, UV, variable fader, ND8. I looked on ebay and found several filters, many sold from China. Some of these names I have never heard of and some names I have.


Fotga
Neewer
Vivitar Series 1
Promaster
Tiffen

I am looking for suggestions on outfitting my lens on a budget. Thank you for your help.

If you are going to spend money on filters, spend the time and money to get good ones. That takes the Fotga, Neewer, VS1, and Promaster off the list right away. Tiffen's UV(0) filters are better than their reputation, but you will NEVER need a UV filter, so why bother? I have a set of Tiffen ND filters (the $75 set, not the $200+ set); they are crap. I suggest looking at a better brand/model than Tiffen's cheapest. Beware of CPL on UWA lenses. They can ruin shots with lots of sky in them. You are better off to bracket UWA sky-shots than use a CPL. That is more true the wider you go. That doesn't help water shots, though.

Summary:
Forget the cheap filters.
Forget UV completely. (digital cameras can't see UV)
Spend as much as you can afford of a quality ND & CPL.

If you have your heart set on buying some inexpensive 67mm filters, I have a set of Tiffen 67mm ND (0.6, 0.9, 1.2) and a 67mm Tiffen CPL. They are still crap, but at least you won't have to pay full retail for them. PM if interested.

Almost forget. Get the cheapest hood you can find. Lens hoods are necessity in my book.

Examples of CPL on an ultrawide (10mm):

Notice the banding and how it really warps color in the sky:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/A8SD​pz

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/zMva​rh

Take my word for it. The effect looks much worse on a raw file on a 22" monitor. Downsizing for posting is helping the photos above.

Thank you for the examples, keep the comments coming.

How about Polaroid or Sunpack?

B+W MRC, Hoya HD or Pro1 or Heliopan, or save until you can afford them. See also the Protective Filter FAQ. Much of what's there applies to all filter types.

I would agree with the others to only use filters when necessary. Polarizers are usually not very good on ultrawide lenses. UV filters are useless IMO and are dinosaurs left over from film days. Camera stores love them because nervous camera buyers want to protect their new gear and filters mean extra profit.

Neutral density filters on the other hand are fun for doing long exposures. Here I will diverge from the advice of others to spend big money on big names. I bought cheap Chinese NDs and they work great IMO.

It should not cost very much money to make excellent filters. Compare a filter having just one small pane of glass with the complexity of a lens with many glass elements and many other precision parts. The filter should be WAY cheaper.

So I am an advocate of using low-cost filters. They are worth a shot. They will most likely be great, but if they disappoint, just discard them.

Anyway, here is a shot taken with a 10 stop XCSource and 4 stop Banner filter, 14 stops total. The exposure was 240 seconds.

Photo from Archibald's gallery.
Image hosted by forum (742481)

I'd suggest a graduated neutral density filter for keeping the sky for landscapes. Get a hard-edges for seascapes and a soft edged for landscapes. Get a square and if you don't want the expense of a holder, you can at least hold it in front of the lens with the camera on a tripod.

Do not put a variable ND filter on a wide-angle lens...This displays a very distinct 'x' pattern in your images that is awful. Variable NDs are made by sandwiching two layers of polarizing film and then rotating their relative positions to get stronger darkening.

Situationally, I still recommend a good CPL for landscapes that don't contain a lot of sky, as it still helps with color saturation and glare off waterfalls, etc.

The old adage of 'you get what you pay for' applies here. Stick with the better known names (Hoya, B+W, etc); the cheaper brands use lower quality glass, inferior coatings and such, which can damage image quality more than the better pieces of gear.

i wouldn't buy filters off ebay...first off the ones that you are mentioning aren't great...secondly i'd be a little worried about buying a quality filter there as well...

look at the better brands...but also know why you want a filter, you don't need a filter for alot of shots, they're pretty specialized in their uses

From OP list I would only choose Tiffen. The rest is something unknown or old.
But I wouldn't buy Tiffen or any filter on ebay, but from BH. They often have prices as good as on ebay, but less if any chance for knock-off.
I have even not expensive E39 size B+W filters from them.

Got it,

Multi coated Hoya filters is what I will buy.

Thank you for all those who responded.

sffire wrote in post #17895172
Got it,

Multi coated Hoya filters is what I will buy.

Thank you for all those who responded.

What kind of duration are you looking to achieve, and in what light? It will help figure out what power ND filter(s) you need.

Very best,

Thanks to one and all, your discussion on filters has just saved me a ton of legwork.

Gord