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dodphotography
12-Apr-2014, 17:59
What's the advantage / disadvantage of both systems.

I'm trying to build a solid 8x10 kit and rather than following my usual system of buying crap, realizing it sucks, then spending more money I would rather just spend the money the first time.

I'm shooting almost 100% black and white, unless color is somehow handed to me on a platter.

Dan

Fredrick
13-Apr-2014, 06:57
I have used the Lee system for several years, I think it's great. Instead of buying different sized filters for every lens, you just buy one filter and a adaptor ring to each different filter thread. Lee also has no colour casts in their GND filters, which is great for colour work. There is also the Lee compendium hood, which I will purchase later this year. All in all, I am very satisfied with my Lee system. I have not tried any other filters since I bought it.

Heroique
13-Apr-2014, 11:10
There is also the Lee compendium hood.

Even if I invested in the Lee system for the compendium hood alone, I'd consider the expense worth it!

biedron
13-Apr-2014, 13:42
+1 for the Lee System.

If you buy an adapter for each lens and always leave it on the lens, it's about 5 seconds to attach the lens hood and another 5 seconds to place a filter in the filter slot. Takes longer to find those things in your bag than it does to attach them…

If you leave the adapter attached, the original lens cap will no longer fit. Lee makes a lens cap that fits over the adapter that is functional (protects the glass well enough) but is not nearly as well made/designed as the rest of the system.

One downside I have observed is that components of the Lee system can be hard to get at times - that was certainly true a couple of years ago, not sure if things have changed.

Bob

Ed Bray
13-Apr-2014, 15:27
I use some Lee filters (Grads & ND) but also use Hitech filters for Monochrome Contrast (red, green, yellow and orange). They are 100mm versions but I have adapted them to 125mm using Black Plasticard, these then fit into my Horseman Bellows Compendium Hood which I have adapted to fit on my Canham MQC. The reason for this is the Horseman Compendium Bellows hood has a rear filter slot which takes 125mm Filters, it also has a front gel filter slot (thinner) which is good for using vignettes or special effect masks.

dodphotography
13-Apr-2014, 15:59
Thanks everyone... Just a little less enthused about investing in yet another system. Seems to happen every time I jump systems. But since I sold every piece I have to commit to 8x10 I think I'll go ahead and order some.

So you've had success with other brands in the Lee unit?

vinny
13-Apr-2014, 17:31
Any of the 100mm or 4x4 filters work fine as long as they are the same thickness (2mm, I believe) you can use 4mm glass filters but you'll need to get the Lee spacers for the holder. I leave the 82mm wide angle ring on my Lee hood at all times and have step up rings on all lenses which are smaller than 82mm. Lee's rings also accept circular filters on the front so you can use a circular pola and grads. Much cheaper than all those rings and allows the use of my 82mm circular filters like my pola on every lens. The 82mm caps on all my lenses also fit nicely in the front of the lee hood. Great system. I shoot in backlight a lot and holding a darkslide while trying to compose through a badly flared lens isn't an option. The hood fixes that too.

Mark Stahlke
13-Apr-2014, 18:30
I get the best of both worlds. I step up all my lenses to 77mm and use a Lee hood on a 77mm adapter that accepts 77mm screw in filters.

dodphotography
13-Apr-2014, 18:34
I'm a little confused boys...

My main lens has a 67mm thread. It's a Fujinon 250 6.7.

Should I step up? This is like Chinese to me

Mark Stahlke
13-Apr-2014, 18:36
The main reason I step up to 77mm is because I have a lot of high quality 77mm filters from my Nikon 35mm lenses.

Drew Wiley
14-Apr-2014, 08:21
Avoid the polyester filters if you want decent optical quality. Resin filters are better but easily damaged. How many filters does one need anyway? I'd far rather have
a few multicoated true glass filters - easier to keep clean, less reflection or flare, and better optical transmission characteristics. If your main lens has a 67mm thread, just buy 67mm filters. No sense toting around something bulkier and more expensive than you need, unless you're contemplating buying a lens which requires bigger filters.

John Kasaian
14-Apr-2014, 09:37
The Lee system is fine if you have a bunch of old lenses without threads and are too big to find thread adapters. One of the beautiful things about the 240mm G Claron on an 8x10 (or any format) is that they accept very common size filters you probably already have in your 35mm SLR kit. I use the rubber bands off of asparagus and broccoli for spare Lee "elasticators."

Drew Wiley
14-Apr-2014, 10:13
Last weekend I was coveting a 14" tessar in a vintage multi-bladed aperture that would give me a different flavor of background blur than my usual hard-sharp modern lenses. No budget for it right now. Then I remembered I had a very clean old Carl Meyer 14" process lens back in a cabinet somewhere, from some old
horse trade, which was a tessar forumula. I mounted it on a Sinar board and took a peek, and really liked what I saw. But no filter threads. So I simply fished around in an old bag of misc step rings and found something that nicely fit, and simply glued it in place with black silicione gasket seal. At the same time I'm fooling around with deep blue tricolor filters to give me more open shadows, yet otherwise high contrast foregrounds, and figured that will slow the exposure enough to use the lens cap method of exposure. Good enough for a fun try, at least. If I get addicted to it, I'll find an appropriate shutter. But John ... where do you find asparagus and broccoli inland these days? Thought you had a drought. Have you been sneaking over to the coast again?

John Kasaian
14-Apr-2014, 10:40
Last weekend I was coveting a 14" tessar in a vintage multi-bladed aperture that would give me a different flavor of background blur than my usual hard-sharp modern lenses. No budget for it right now. Then I remembered I had a very clean old Carl Meyer 14" process lens back in a cabinet somewhere, from some old
horse trade, which was a tessar forumula. I mounted it on a Sinar board and took a peek, and really liked what I saw. But no filter threads. So I simply fished around in an old bag of misc step rings and found something that nicely fit, and simply glued it in place with black silicione gasket seal. At the same time I'm fooling around with deep blue tricolor filters to give me more open shadows, yet otherwise high contrast foregrounds, and figured that will slow the exposure enough to use the lens cap method of exposure. Good enough for a fun try, at least. If I get addicted to it, I'll find an appropriate shutter. But John ... where do you find asparagus and broccoli inland these days? Thought you had a drought. Have you been sneaking over to the coast again?
Vee haff veyz! :cool:

Drew Wiley
14-Apr-2014, 10:58
Yeah ... about half hour ago a fellow was looking for a repair part for a $600 German HEPA vac I sold him a couple months ago, and couldn't figure out why he
needed to repair something that soon. He said his dog had gnawed off part of the housing. I asked what breed it was. He said it was a Yorkshire terrier. So then
I had to inform him that the warranty only covered damage by German shepherds, not British dogs.

Michael Kadillak
16-Apr-2014, 18:35
I get the best of both worlds. I step up all my lenses to 77mm and use a Lee hood on a 77mm adapter that accepts 77mm screw in filters.

I use the Lee system with my screw on filters in 67mm, 77mm and 95mm. Put the adapter on the end of the screw on filter and then you can use the Lee hood you want. When I an faced with shooting with the light on my back I can get away with using a dark slide and save some time. Each shot defines the decisions of the photographer to capture it to his or her objectives. Which is precisely why I have stopped using a spot meter and use my incident meter 99% of the time. With the incident meter I can make adjustments knowing that any issues with flare have been excised and taken out of the equation. Took me a long time to arrive at this conclusion and I am not looking back.

NancyP
17-Apr-2014, 14:36
Lee system has a square filter carrier and an adapter ring threaded to fit your lens front threads. If your lens has an outer diameter of 100-105mm, the square carrier can just slip onto the outside of the lens via some non threaded adapter. One should get the standard adapter if the lens has angle of view comparable to a 135 format 24mm lens or narrower, one should get the more expensive wide angle adapter for 24mm equivalent or wider view. Wide angle adapter ring is set back a little to prevent vignetting.

I lucked out and found a used Lee compendium hood locally.

AlexGard
1-May-2014, 12:18
I have the lee filter system and really like it. I find a small issue with the compendium, though. Doesn't stop light coming down between your filters. Has stuffed up a few exposures with flares all over the place. Fixed the problem by draping my little lens cleaning cloth over the top of the filters.

Also I find the price of the lee filter adapter rings absolutely absurd. 100+ is insane. Can find much cheaper chinese knock off's that are literally just as good (have some authentic and knock offs and can't tell the difference apart from lack of LEE logo)

other than that it's a rigid system and I enjoy using it.

vinny
1-May-2014, 14:15
I have the lee filter system and really like it. I find a small issue with the compendium, though. Doesn't stop light coming down between your filters. Has stuffed up a few exposures with flares all over the place. Fixed the problem by draping my little lens cleaning cloth over the top of the filters.

Also I find the price of the lee filter adapter rings absolutely absurd. 100+ is insane. Can find much cheaper chinese knock off's that are literally just as good (have some authentic and knock offs and can't tell the difference apart from lack of LEE logo)
yeah, I have a piece of black fabric attached as a flap to the hood to cover filters. we do the same thing on movie cameras. The rings are priced high as a kite. Which brand of knock-offs have you found which make a good fit?
other than that it's a rigid system and I enjoy using it.

Heroique
1-May-2014, 14:31
Also I find the price of the lee filter adapter rings absolutely absurd. 100+ is insane.

You might be referring to your local independent shop?

Online one can do better, for example at B&H:

Lee WA metal (aluminum) adapter ring: $60 (67mm and 77mm)
Lee regular (plastic) adapter ring: $28 (67mm and 77mm)

KEH's used adapters would be much lower in BGN, EX, and EX+ condition.

BTW, Lee's regular plastic rings are of very high quality, but the WA metal rings are truly superb, and I think worth the higher cost – whether you're using them for wide lenses or not. In addition, if you're using Lee's compendium hood, the WA rings do make a helpful difference for movements with all focal lengths.

AlexGard
2-May-2014, 09:20
http://www.ebay.com/itm/LEE-Filters-Lens-Adapter-Ring-95mm-Standard-NEW-/151007167765?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_CameraAccessories_CameraLensesFilters_JN&hash=item2328ba8515 - $130 on ebay

$70 on B&H, although with their ridiculous shipping prices I'll probably be looking at $100. (I paid $60 postage for a copal 0 lens board from them)

I'm probably looking in the wrong places. :/

Any other ways to get around the covering of the filters like I mentioned before? Is there a gizmo that wraps around the filter bracket protecting them from light entering between the glass?

edit: yep, just as I suspected. $100 from B&H with shipping.

Heroique
2-May-2014, 09:32
[?]

B&H Lee adapter rings are $60 (WA) and $28 (regular) -- free shipping.

Adorama is the same.

I'd still check KEH first!

Joe O'Hara
2-May-2014, 09:36
Another nice thing about the Lee system is that you can use it with a medium format camera, like I do with my Pentax 67. Double duty for one investment.

The screws on the filter holder do tend to loosen up at odd times. A bit of Loctite or a screwdriver in the bag are advisable.

AlexGard
2-May-2014, 09:41
Maybe it's the type of ring? This 95mm ring seems to be more expensive than more common sizes like 77mm.

Still, I wouldn't trade the system for anything else. It's the biz. A lot better than the Cokin system I had before,

Heroique
2-May-2014, 09:48
Yes, those lower prices are for the 67mm and 77mm.

I also have a gap when I use my Lee holder where multi-directional light and reflections sneak in – an elastic head band for tennis (black) works great!

Like Bjorn Borg.

cyron123
3-May-2014, 07:25
Hi guys,
are there any special hoods for large format cameras? You don't need to screwin the adapter for every lens and the weight of the filter system should be on the camera. not the lens barrel.
I dont know..?!?

adelorenzo
3-May-2014, 09:09
I use a compendium hood for my Toyo that holds square filters. No idea if a similar system is available for other cameras.