Photo Credit: Joyce Michaud

After shooting with my FS100 for a while, I finally decided to buckle down and pick up some neutral density. It’s clear this camera needs it in one form or another; I think anyone that’s done any research on it realizes this, but the problem is deciding which direction to go.

I ended up getting screw-on filters because I didn’t have the budget to pick up a matte box (which would have been my first choice). Variable ND’s were appealing, but in order to avoid more problems you had to invest in the more expensive ones. These can be close to and above $400. That was beyond what I wanted to spend, and I didn’t want to cheap out and run into color/sharpness problems.

The kit I ended up getting was the Tiffen 77mm Indie ND Kit. For about $260 you get 4 different ND filters: .3, .6, .9 and 1.2. The most interesting thing about these filters is that they claim to be “water white” glass. I’ll be honest with you; I probably wouldn’t be able to tell you if I saw the difference between water white and regular glass, but apparently water white is what you need to look for when buying filters.

The first project I used these on was some student interviews outside their respective campuses. I’m still working on this so I’m only going to post a screenshot from my Premiere window, but you’ll get the picture.

I shot all of the interviews on a 17-35mm to start with, and switched to a 70-200mm for tight shots. The two shots in the picture below are around 75mm. These are straight out of camera shots.

I was able to shoot almost wide open in both situations, one at mid-day around 12:30pm, and one just before sunset around 5:00pm. Achieving f/2.8 was easy – I would start with the highest ND I had (1.2) and add on from there to get where I needed to be. If I needed something less than 1.2, I could just use a single .9 or .6 but it was too bright for that.

Using screw on filters has its pros and cons. They are indeed the most cost-effective solution, but you’re stuck having to screw and unscrew them onto your lenses whenever there’s a change. You’ll also need step rings for any lenses smaller than 77mm. Those are very cheap, though. Not much of a problem in my eyes.

I was shooting in the shade for all of the interviews, but I didn’t notice any bad reflections from the filters themselves. I’ve had to take off cheap Hoya UV filters because of strange square reflections from the sensor. This wasn’t the case with these.

Finally, there’s one thing I would like to complain about about this kit in particular. Tiffen gives you a small case for the four filters, but the filters come wrapped in tissue paper and inserted into the case. Honestly, I wouldn’t trust putting the filters inside this case without some kind of protection on them as it would probably scratch them up badly. I’d leave the tissue paper on but I know I would lose it – I already lost one on the first shoot. So now I’m stuck here looking for some kind of solution to carry the filters around in the case they gave me.

Overall I’m extremely satisfied with the purchase. It was only one project but I can already tell these are going to come in handy whenever I shoot outside. Some day I’ll eventually grab a matte box and some square filters, but until then these will certainly suffice.