Lee v Cokin Filters

[cliff123]

Are Lee filters worth the extra money? I'm currently using a D70, may step up to the D200 sometime next year, and am slow starting to do more commerical photography work (friends weddings/ event / business photography). Looking to buy a few filters and am between Lee and Cokin. The Lee are obviously more expensive. Are they worth the extra? Will I notice the different? If I buy Cokin now, will I reget it in a year and wish I had bought the Lee. Dont want to waste money if not necessary, but dont want to be disappointed with the filters once I have them. Any advice welcomed. Cheers. Cliff.

[simpo two]

Assuming you're talking creative filters, mine went on eBay when I moved to digital. I now have a multi-purpose filter called PhotoShop
However, UV, Polarising and ND filters all have a place in the bag.

[cliff123]

I'm thinking ND filters so that I may get long expsoures on bright days, or grad greys so I dont blow out the skies when exposing for the foreground.

[Steve11]

I've been using Lee filters for a few years now and find the quality excellent, they are nice and big (essential if you're using large professional lenses) with a good selection of different filters, the ND grads (do not change the sky colour unlike gray grads)come in 1/3 steps and hard or soft graduations). Worth the extra cash .

[getcarter]

Cliff - have you tried digital blending?

I've been using grad greys since the battle of Hastings, but now find it much easier (as well as keeping quality - no nasty filters in the way) to expose for sky and land then blend the two once downloaded.

I'm not knocking the grads... sometimes the sky is so bright that the dark grads are the best way to get detail, but I now perfer to do the filtering post camera whenever possible.

It does eat memory mind... Not so good if you are on a long hike with a small CF card.

Steve

[cliff123]

Yes I have. Your right that does work, but I'm keen to a)just give filters a go (not used them before) and b)to get things as right as I can in the camera not just later in PS.

I also have a job where the client would like their shop shot during the day with people walking by. I'd like to make the people blurred, which I think is best done with a ND filter. I guess I could PS this, but I'm not sure it would be as good as the raw photo with a filter applied. Any advice welcome. thanks for your comments so far.

[getcarter]

Right... then Lee are much better than Cokin!

[simpo two]

cliff123 said:

I also have a job where the client would like their shop shot during the day with people walking by. I'd like to make the people blurred, which I think is best done with a ND filter.

Agreed, that's a job for an ND filter and not PS. I'm guessing you'll need about 1/4 second, so as well as the ND filter you can also set ISO as low as possible and use a small aperture (unless you want shallow DOF). You could also add a Polariser (vignetting permitting) as they knock off a stop or two. Sounds fun!