I'm making my Christmas list right now and I'm looking at B&H's site for B+W ND filters. I'm set on getting these:

102 (filter factor 4x)
103 (filter factor 8x)
106 (filter factor 64x) (this one's a maybe)

Question is, B&H's site seems to have several different options for the same filters - some are slim, some extra wide, some coated, and some not. I'm looking for 77mm filters for my 10-22, 17-55, and 70-200 lenses. Do I need slim, wide angle, or what?

Here's the page I'm looking at: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...t=Submit+Query

 

I'm pretty sure you don't need slim mount filters with your gear. If you ever go full frame, however, you may experience vignetting with a "standard" mount filter on anything wider than 24-ish mm.

How brave are you feeling with your X-mas list?
http://www.singh-ray.com/varind.html

 

 

I've read that B+W and Hoya filters are better than Singh-Ray. Is this true?

Eh, nevermind. I don't want a vari ND anyway.

 

i own two B+W 4x ND filters (52mm and 62mm)...didn't see anything about them having a slim, wide angle, etc. option when i bought them...but mine are both coated...

and they come in very handy...

 

Thanks rimz. I'm still confused on the wide angle vs. slim vs. what I guess is regular, but I'll figure it out I suppose.

Is the coating mostly for protection, or does it serve another purpose?

 

The coating is to help with glare, I wouldn't worry about it though. Not like with UV or CPL's.

 

The slim filters are just phyically thinner than the standard filter, so as not to cause vignetting when shooting at wider angles. If the filter sticks out more from the end of the lens, and field of view is wide enough, you could get darkening in the corners of the image.

Apparently it's not much of an issue with crop bodies according to Billiam. FWIW, the Hoya CP I just bought is a slim version. I can't really see any downside to getting a slim versus a regular, other than some slim versions won't allow you to stack filters. I'm not sure if the B+W filters have this issue. Hoya's do not.

And yes, multicoating is preferred. It helps control lens flare.

 

^ Thanks! Yes, I think I did read in the huge PDF file from B+W that one or more of the slim ND filters are not stackable. I'll have to think about whether or not this will pose a problem.

 

I've stacked 2 regular thickness B+W ND's on my 10-22 and it will only slightly vignette at 10mm. By 11 or 12mm it's completely fine. I didn't even know B+W made thin ND's...

 

Dan - thanks for your comment. I was wondering a bit about the 10-22, if I'd have any vignetting on that lens.

So far I'm leaning towards multicoated regular filters. No need for the extra wide ones, right?

 

The regular filters will be fine. For what it's worth, none of my ND's are multicoated either and it hasn't been an issue. I think it's because the filters are reducing the light coming into the lens so stray specular lights are dimmed enough to not bounce around the inside of the lens. Multicoating might make more of a difference on the less dark ND's like a 2x or 4x because they don't filter as much light. That's just a guess though.

 

I'd also hazard a guess that some other properties of a filter that can contribute to flare are if the surfaces of the glass aren't polished to a consistent finish or if the front and back surfaces aren't polished to be parallel with each other. It's pretty doubtful you'd have to worry about these things with a premium filter brand like B+W.