filter quandry

Hello all,

I have a couple of questions as I am a bit confused. I looked through all of the posts,but I could find answers I needed.

I am just getting lanscape and long exposure photgraphy, I will mainly use my 17-40 which is a 77mm thread. I currently have a hoya nd 400 which is about 9 stops I believe. I also want get a cp, more nd's and maybe gnd's, but not enough experience yet to know how toeffectivley use the gnd's. I also just bought the hitech drop in filter holder (wide angle 2 slot) and I can still return it if needed.

Questions:

Is it better just buy screw on cp's and nd's or buy them all as 4x4ms instead? 8 couldn't find a cp by hitech and it doesn't look like any other brand fits due to thickness. Hitechs are 1.5 mm thick. Which route should go and what is the best way to use cp with nd's at the same time?

Thanks for any info you can give me.

Richard

I'd go with screw-on CPLs. I use B+W MRC circular polarizers exclusively. The F-Pro should be plenty slim enough for the 17-40 on the 5D2. NDs, I'd tend to go with the 4x4" ones since if you don't want to use Live View to focus and compose, you'll be able to focus, compose, and then slide in the filter without messing composition up.

Can you stack cp and nd's if they are screw mount and how bad is the vingetting? What brand drop in system do you use? how do you use a screw on cp and drop in nd at the same time or is it not recommended?

I have the Lee system (except for the 2 stop soft, which is about to celebrate it's first birthday on back-order at Adorama), but with an UWA I wouldn't mix CPL and grad for most situations. I don't actually, myself, have a lot of need for straight NDs beyond what I can get with a polarizer and low ISO settings or careful composition with a 4x6 grad. And the wider the lens the more likely you're going to be to get vignetting with any stacking. I had Singh Ray grads in a Cokin P that worked fine until I went FF with the 5D. Then I started to vignette a tad at 24 mm.

I have the hoya ND 400 which I use for long exposure on water, is it better to return it for a drop in or keep and only use the drop in gnd's? I will probably get the screw on cp. Should I stay with the hiteck system or exchange it for a different system? Thanks