SImply the best!
Written: Jun 12 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: good value, huge versatility, the right filter for the job
Cons: a bit expensive for most people. square glass filters are a pain to carry around
The Bottom Line: The right filter for the job. Its worth the inconvenience of carrying square glass filters. The proof is in the images.
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| uniq's Full Review: B&W B+W 3x3" Neutral Density (ND) 0.9 (8x) 103 (65... |
Filters are the sort of the thing that most people dismiss as being a thing of the past. Popular Photography and other photo mags have pretty much led us all to believe that all we have to do is shoot in RAW mode and we can create any effect we want in PHOTOSHOP. If ONLY that were the case. Life would be so easy. Any camera would be good enough, any lens would work great, any technique (or lack-thereof) would still allow us to save it in Photoshop.
Just because you use a digital camera doesn't mean that the fundamental rules of photography have changed!!
But if you are reading this you probably already know that.
While it is technically possible to edit in filter "effects" such as graduated color filters etc, that doesn't mean that these "effect" look exactly like what you would have gotten if you had just shot it with a filter in the first place. Sorry for being preachy, but I have a point, and it relates directly to the review.
Dynamic range is the absolute enemy of photographers...or its your best friend if you like to play with a camera's inability to capture the full visible dynamic range of the world and you LIKE the way it distorts everything when it gets beyond its limits. Your eye can see a range of light from the brightest whites to the deepest blacks that FAR exceed films ability to see and represent those same transitional ranges. Ansel Adam's zone system was designed to help the photographer capture properly the 10 stops of light that were the limit of black and white silver halide film. Your eye can see almost twice that much
Digital cameras, like slide film...often can only capture half the amount of tonal range that you can get in silver halide... and the printers we use to make photographs on our computer are similarly limited.
The bottom line:
You take a picture with your camera. It captures about half the range your eye can see... then you take it home and edit it and print it and reduce it again by about half. So that makes the 5 stops of light that you have accurately rendered DARN IMPORTANT.
Enter a neutral density filter
There is a perfect time of day when the light strikes most subjects and the range from the brightest whites to the deepest blacks is fully within the range of many film camera to capture.... 15 minutes later you have to choose to either blow out the whites or lose the blacks to featureless shadow. A neutral density filter, placed carefully at the line of the horizon where the brightest part of the image is, can tone down the highlights while still preserving the shadow detail. It accomplishes this by using a film over the glass that blocks a portion of the light...gradually less until it is completely clear and lets in all the light.
Most graduated neutral density filters are circular and therefore almost useless. The graduated line ends in the center of the image...and unless you are shooting a water reflection shot or some other image where it "works" to split the frame of the horizon right down the center of the photo (a huge photographic "no-no") then your ND filter is pointless
A 3x3 filter or other glass square filter can be used in a filter holder mounted on the front of the lens and the graduated line can be moved up and down in order to set the line at the horizon. Which might be 10% of the top..or 1/3 of the top or 90% of the top of the frame. But not likely to be 50% of the frame like with a circular filter.
The B + W 3x3 filter is a well made glass filter that retails for about $160 and is equal in performance to the circular ND filters made by the same company. B + W is well known as the Rolls Royce of filter makers and their gear is as good as it can be.
Neutral Density filters are rated by how many stops of light they reduce at the far end of the filter. B+W offers just about the widest range of filters for this application and has filters ranging from 1 stop to 20 stops!!! I remember when I would have killed just to have a 3-stop filter and now B+W makes 20 stops! Not that I need that, but I like their enthusiasm...so next time I need to balance out the light of a nuclear explosion with the subtle shadow details of downtown Detroit.Im all set!
This filter is top rate, it will last forever, and it will give you more control than any circular ND filter. I do think the Sing Bay (I’m sure I spelled that wrong) is a tad nicer with the rectangular construction...but the B+W filter is actually designed for cinematic use and is easily adaptable to photography, while the Sing Bay is strictly a still camera filter.
5 stars!! Good value, good performance. It allows you to get the shot right the first time, in the camera, without fussing with highlight/shadows in Photoshop (which does a crap job compared to the REAL thing if done right.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
uniq
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Member: Bob K
Location: Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio, USA
Reviews written: 109
Trusted by: 12 members
About Me:
An unchallenged opinion is worthlessly held..... (someone important)
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