Lee Filters

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Soldato
Joined
20 Jul 2008
Posts
4,440
I feel at a stage now with my amateur photography where I want to start experimenting with filters.

I've heard good things about Lee filters but to be honest it all seems awfully expensive. The mount alone is something like £200. Are they over-hyped or are they worth it?

The filters I'm interested in are ND graduated filters (for exposure balancing) and the full ND 10-stop filters for achieving water/mist effects with landscape photography. Surely I am better off just buying some cheapo ones which will screw straight onto my lens?

I'm really drawn to the various graduated filters on Lee Filter's websites which show some astonishing effects on colours for sunset/sunrise shots, but surely the same effect can be achieved by playing about in Lightroom? Is there actually any advantage with using a filter. Have a look at the examples on the following link, I'm specifically asking about the colour filters (e.g. Lee Coral Grad on the bottom right) as obviously one cannot mimick the effect achieved by, say, a Polariser Filter in Lightroom/PS.

http://www.leefilters.com/index.php/camera

Would be interested in some opinions.
 
Lee filter holder, Hitech filters. Much cheaper solution. If you're a TP member, there are often Lee starter kits on the classifieds.

I've moved on from Cokin P and a B+W screw-in 10 stop to the above, and it's noticably better quality.
 
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ND Grads you absolutely have to have as an external square filter so you can control the location of the graduation.

For a solid ND then a screw in B+W is great.
 
Lightroom or similar image editors can do the same effect, but only to a small effect. The use of grad filters help to reduce light exposure from bright skies, so you can capture more detail without loss from overexposure. Then you can use your image editor to dodge/burn the sky for dramatic effect (especially clouds). :)
 
The Lee System is really good but yes expensive, I've invested in the kit but the results save time in post.

I've got the Foundation Kit, Adapter Ring & Polariser Ring

So that, coupled with a Lee .9 Soft Grad, Lee .6 Soft Grad and a HiTech .9 Hard Grad results in this.

A4_Sunset_2.jpg
 
See that does look fantastic, but could you have got the same effect in Lightroom/PS?

Of course I understand the point of ND filters I'm just not sure I buy into all this stuff on the Lee filters website revolving around filters which just manipulate colours.
 
I've got Lee filters (couple of Lee grads, a Big Stopper, three other NDs and a Hitech reverse grad) - went with buy cheap, buy twice. Either that or more money then sense... :D

Not sure where you have £200 for the mount. The foundation kit is £56 on SpeedGraphic and you then need an adapter which is £20 to £45 depending on the size and type.

Might be worth getting the August 2013 issue of Digital SLR as Lee Frost reviews a set of filters which were £15 off eBay / Amazon. That includes 6 filters plus all the adapters and bits, so ideal to see if you want to invest in Lee kit in the future.
 
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You are going to need the wide angle adaptor on both sizes to stop edge vignetting. Stupidly expensive for what they are. I found wex to be cheapest when pricing the foundation kit and adapter recently. Might have changed though.

The last 3 posts on this show the edge vignetting on a crop and then someone explains how wide on a FF before they get vignetting with a standard adapter ring....

http://www.flickr.com/groups/leefilters/discuss/72157626890464463/
 
What I don't understand is why people don't just buy the wide one to start with. That way you'll never need to buy twice. When I got my Lee adapters & filter I looked at both and other than cost it makes no sense to me why I'd buy the non wide version and the wide version. They both fit the same lenses and there's no reason I'm aware of that would mean you have to buy both.
 
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i usually see vignetting at around 20mm on a FF, mainly because of the Heliopan i've got bolted to the end of it and because I've got three slots for the filters as well. I can probably do away with the 3rd (and not use the .6 ND Grad with the .9 hard & soft) and that may reduce the vignetting but at the moment, even with bolt-on shots, I've not needed to shoot any wider than 20mm.
 
I don't think you'll need the uwa adapter for the 72mm lenses, even if stacking filters, but if you are stacking and going under 20mm, you'll need one (summary: buy the 77mm uwa one :) )
 
Ray,
I got a standard 77mm adapter with my kit. I then bought the 77 Wide angle one for my 17-40. And for my 200mm and 85mm which are both 72mm I just bought a £4 72-77mm stepping ring from the bay. Works perfectly and the added adatpers does nothing to disturb the frame. I am also shooting on a 5D Mark III :)
 
Johnny|lucidcomposure said:
Ray,
I got a standard 77mm adapter with my kit. I then bought the 77 Wide angle one for my 17-40. And for my 200mm and 85mm which are both 72mm I just bought a £4 72-77mm stepping ring from the bay. Works perfectly and the added adatpers does nothing to disturb the frame. I am also shooting on a 5D Mark III :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, so I need the 77mm wide angle one never the less.

This is what is in my basket right now, i want it by Thursday so I think i'll just get it instead of faffing with eBay as I am off to France on Friday for a shoot so I wantto take it with me.

sMfrGcQ.png
 
I doubt I will be shooting that wide, I think most likely it would be 24mm at most, but I got both as I don't know which one I would need.
 
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