Hey guys, so I'm looking to get one or two variable ND filters soon to help with shooting outdoors and not having to be at f/22 all the time haha, but there are a million out there from the cheap ebay knockoffs to the expensive big name ones, was wondering what you guys use.

Singh Ray 77mm slim variable ND. I never shoot outdoors without mine! Yes, not cheap but image quality and color are fantastic no matter how it's set.
Also, you only need one variable as you can get step down rings to fit all lenses.

Hmm thanks man! I was thinking getting more than one for multi-cam shoots actually haha.

Ahh! My DsLrs are my b-cams!
Another thing to consider is the matte box concept. I just picked up a really nice one from coollcd.com for not a lot of money. It has slots for 4x4 drop in filters. More money than a screw on filter but allows For much quicker lens changing and easier stacking of filters with no vignetting. Plus they look cool! Ha ha!

I'm assuming you mean this Matte Box? DSLR Matte Box, Lanparte Matte Box, Canon 7D 5D T2I Matte Box [CoolMatte Pro] (http://www.coollcd.com/coolmatte-pro-lanparte-dslr-matte-box-for-canon-7d-5d-t2i-and-other-cameras_p869.html)

It does look pretty awesome, but a bit out of my goal budget for now still unfortunately. I also still need to get some kind of a rail system before I go with that and a follow focus, I've been watching the Gini rigs on ebay, they seem pretty sweet for the price.

I have a Phottix Variable ND filter , and it's an amazing piece of gear! I use a Canon 600d and my main lens is a Samyang 35mm. I switched from Sony ax2000 which, naturally, has built-in NDs but using Variable NDs is much better IMHO.

*Very important note:

I don't know which lenses you have, but it's best to buy a VND that can cover all or a majority of your lenses (the ones you use the most), since you can buy step up rings, this means you should buy the one with a large ring size, for example a 77mm VND

I have a Genus variable ND filter & it's very sharp on wide/mid lenses but I find on 70mm and up the image becomes soft. There is apparently a problem with variable ND filters & telephoto lenses? I'm busy switching over to standard ND filters.

I use a Light Craft Variable ND filter. I shoot nearly everything outside under the equatorial African sun, so I really needed something quick and easy to use.

It seems to work fine. It softens the image a bit, and perhaps warms the image a bit too,. But I like a softer image anyway (I use vintage nikkors, and soften in post too).

All of the videos in the vimeo link below used that ND filter (have a look at 'The Source' for an all outdoor shoot).

we use the LCW Fader ND Mk II with two T3i's, here's a recent review we did of the filter, it shows various examples of it in use.

Click "CC" for English subtitles, hope it helps :)


Yardbless Pro Shooter - LCW Fader ND Mk. II Review - YouTube

.... and perhaps warms the image a bit too,. .

Simon I spent some time reading up on ND filters & the word is they only cut visible light while allowing IR light to pass that's why the image seems warmer. In extreme cases they (the internet) advice a person also use an IR filter.

all i know is the lightcraft fader nd 2 makes my 70-200 2.8 is II look like crap

Same here Ger my Genus is unusable on my 70-200.

A variable ND filter is actually two "pieces" of glass so when using one you are introducing FOUR additional potentially reflective layers. This could partially explain the softness some are seeing with telephoto lenses.

Depending on lens design a variable ND filter can cause or introduce more internal reflections also. I'm seeing a disturbing number of reports of this happening with Lumix lenses for the Micro Four Thirds system. As a result I've quit using my variable ND's (Polaroid brand) and gone back to single strength Tiffen ND's. I've got those in .6ND, .9ND. and 1.2ND for 2 stop reduction, 3 stops, and 4 stops respectively.

I just picked up a LCW Fader MarkII - I've only done a couple of tests, but it seems to do a fine job. Like anything else it will take time to get it perfect, but I'm happy :)

like everyone else, my image is softer when using lightcraft workshop variable nd filter. I'm probably gonna try to use a mattebox or something else.