ND's with Standard OLPF

[Kevin D'Haeze]

Once the Raven lands at my office, there will be at certain percentage of projects that will require being "nimble", and in my mind that means implementing some variable ND's. Does anyone have any information on any sacrifice of quality when using variable ND's vs. fixed ND's? Any caveats or things to watch out for? Any color pollution issues that arise?

 

[Phil Holland]

Color pollution is minimized by the IR Cutting/Blocking with the Dragon sensor tech. In that way Variable NDs work better than say an Mysterium-X body.

However, yes, Variable NDs come at a cost of softening the image specifically at wider and longer focal lengths. Another quibble is some of them generate some micro-pebbling to the out of focus/bokeh occasionally which isn't so lovely.

NDs allow more freedom, but I wouldn't use front filtration past 135-200mm if you can avoid it. It depends a bit on the optical design of the lens, but usually somewhere in there you'll see some image softening. 300mm primes for instance usually support rear filtration. Some lenses even have rear threads for filters if you want to work that way. Same goes for ultra-wides. Somewhere in the 14-15mm range is sometimes weird. Again depends on the lens design and how the filter is designed as well.

 

[Nick Morrison]

Color pollution is minimized by the IR Cutting/Blocking with the Dragon sensor tech. In that way Variable NDs work better than say an Mysterium-X body.

However, yes, Variable NDs come at a cost of softening the image specifically at wider and longer focal lengths. Another quibble is some of them generate some micro-pebbling to the out of focus/bokeh occasionally which isn't so lovely.

NDs allow more freedom, but I wouldn't use front filtration past 135-200mm if you can avoid it. It depends a bit on the optical design of the lens, but usually somewhere in there you'll see some image softening. 300mm primes for instance usually support rear filtration. Some lenses even have rear threads for filters if you want to work that way. Same goes for ultra-wides. Somewhere in the 14-15mm range is sometimes weird. Again depends on the lens design and how the filter is designed as well.

Awesome answer. Thanks!

 

[Kevin D'Haeze]

Thanks so much, Phil... stellar info. I've heard the Standard OLPF has achieved great improvements in terms of IR pollution. Shane Hurlbut did a great review on this as well. One question, when dealing with longer focal lengths, what EF-mount lenses do you recommend that would have rear filter ability?