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filters and whatnot
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Quality of the Cokins is ok but they can scratch easily. Also, I think they’re actually considered grey rather than neutral grads, so colours can be affected a bit more than the more expensive brands. Somebody may correct me on this though.
In my opinion, a must have for landscapes is a Circular Polariser. I have a Marumi myself and it’s perfect. Just don’t buy the cheapies for €15 or thereabouts that you see on ebay.Cokins are fine if you look after them, if you are planning on doing nothing much else
but landscapes you probably would be better off going for Lee filters, the bees knees in
filters………but of course been knees come at a price. Though I think they do a
starter kit for probably three times the price of the Cokins.I had a set of Cokins. Never liked them. If you can afford them & plan on doing lots of landscape, go for the Lee filters.
Lees are nice, no doubt about it. Optically, though, the difference between Lee’s and Cokin is actually not too noticable, but they do have special filter options and a nicer holder system. Colour fidelity though is of course excellent with Lees; Cokin NDs are known to have a magenta/sepia cast, which can look annoying in unprocessed images.
My perennial issue with all those though has been that, personally, I’m not a great fan of resin filters, full-stop. Whether they’re called Lee, or Singh-Ray/Galen Rowell, or Cokin…All the same easily-scratched crp, if you pardon my french.
If you look after them, fine, they’ll last a while. Do you ever see them s/h and unscratched for sale? No. – OK, a few light scratches don’t make them unusable, but if you work in harsh environments you have to be so careful with them. – might as well stick with Cokin or cheap gel filters then as you lose less money.
Anyway; I still have a few that I use now-and-then, but I’ve largely gone to a proper 4×4″ glass system, e.g. Cavision, for grads. Saved me money and stress in the long term. Just don’t drop them, although they are pretty tough :) . I guess you could use them with the Lee or Cokin X-Pro holder, too and they’re price-wise between Cokin and Lee.
In frontal light situations, (e.g. sunsets), stacked uncoated filters give rise to flare, so I’ve often used a screw-in MC filter and a sliding 4×4 grad on top instead of just stacking uncoated filters.
it would be sensational if someone could come up with an affordable “sandwiching” service, laminating thin, coated glass on both sides of the resin, like they do with polarisers. Small market though :) …. Dragon’s Den anyone? :lol:
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