ND & GND's

I'm looking to pick up a set of Cokin ND filters -does anyone know of the best place to get a good price on these? I am thinking of picking up the 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 filters.

I am also looking into a GND filter set, for when I take some landscape shots. It seems there are quite a few thing I may need ... a lens adaptor ring (in my case 77mm), the actual filter holder, and GND filter ... does that about sum it up?

I forgot to mention that I have a 40D, and I plan to be using a 10-20 mm lens.
Should I be going with the P, or Z series filters and filter holders?
Has anyone had any luck just holding the GND in front of the lens instead of using the holder?

my hand is my holder. check out the accessories section as these filters have been discussed to death. if you want a real good understanding, use the search feature and search for posts by user argyle in that specific section. he is like the filter sensei.

thanks!

A_lee wrote in post #10030857
I'm looking to pick up a set of Cokin ND filters -does anyone know of the best place to get a good price on these? I am thinking of picking up the 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 filters.

I am also looking into a GND filter set, for when I take some landscape shots. It seems there are quite a few thing I may need ... a lens adaptor ring (in my case 77mm), the actual filter holder, and GND filter ... does that about sum it up?

If you plan on using a filter holder, you will need an adapter ring that threads onto your lens barrel, the holder itself, and lastly the filters. Hand holding the filter is an option, and I sometimes do this myself, but I find that this only works with shutter speeds of no longer than 10-seconds or so. If you get to the point where you'll be stacking filters, say combining an ND filter with a GND, or even a polarizer, the shutter speeds will be noticeably longer, then I'd definitely recommend using the holder.

Due to the many threads on here about holders, I don't want to repeat things ad nauseam...there are plenty of threads on the merits of the various filter sizes and systems if you care to search them out. First, skip the P-size and go with the larger filters, 4x4, 4x5, or 4x6 (what you refer to as Z-size). This will leave you with several filter holder options: Lee Foundation Kit, Cokin Z-Pro are the most popular...of these, I strongly recommend the Lee holder. Again, plenty of threads to search for the Lee/Cokin comparison...there's also a direct comparison on the 2filter.com website.

Filters...many stay away from Cokin, some like them. Your best options are Hitech, Lee, and Singh-Ray (in order of cost). Hitech is probably the best bargain...very good filter, moderate price. All are made from optical grade polyester resin, so the material is basically the same for each. FWIW, I used Hitech filters for years and just recently switched to Lee.

Like I said...there's plenty of reading material on this subject if you search it out. The above recommendations form the condensed version of all that reading.