ND filter recommendations.

[Uday Bhaskar Karra]

Hi Experts

I am a newbie to cinematography. And currently i am shooting with Red-Scarlet MX.

One of the biggest challenges i am facing is... getting correct exposure on daylight.

If i want to shoot 24fps-4K on daylight... the only control i have on exposure is by controllig aperture where i am sacrifysing dof and also if i go below f 9 or 11 image looks very soft... So far i am shooting only on golden hours... but this has become very challenging.
Other options i have is to shoot in crop (3k/2k/1k) with higher frame rates/ shutter speed to get correct exposure ( i use both goal posts and false colors mechanism Red offers).

So it seems ND/Gradient filters are the only options i have left with...

Could you please recommend two ND filter sets, one which is affordable and gets the job done without any sacrifises to image quality and the second one which is best quality offering.

Also i would like to read your tips/ strategy on using ND filters.

Your response is highly appreciated.


Thanks

 

[Rob_Austin]

You need an IRND set that covers the lens you use. They can be found very cheap used. If your lens is small enough, you can use circular sizes with a photography slot holder instead of a full size mattebox.

 

[Marcus Friedlander]

Affordable is probably the Tiffen's.

Best is probably the Firecrest ND's.

 

[Daniel Kelly Brown]

Hands down the best filters I have come across- https://breakthrough.photography/

 

[William Long]

Firecrest!

 

[Grzegorz Gill]

Firecrest is what I have been using last three years. Before when I owned a mx sensor I would use tiffen .3.6.9 1.2 then after 1.2 I would rent firecrests or nisi filters. The blacks get purply after 1.2 filter on an mx sensor.

 

[BrendanLeahy]

Hands down the best filters I have come across- https://breakthrough.photography/

Daniel - which NDs do you have?

 

[Uday Bhaskar Karra]

Robert/Marcus/Daniel/William/GG

Thanks for sharing your experience and guiding me.

I decided to go with breakthrough X4. Ordered 3 and 6 stops 100mm size (to use them with matte box/ breakthrough 100mm filter holder).