I'm looking at purchasing a B+W warming filter 81A. I found the filter on B&H for $156 and also on Amazon through Adorama for $111. The one from B&H says special order and will take 6-10 weeks for delivery, while Adorama has it in stock. Should I be concerned about any quality differences between the two? I don't really want to wait 6-10 weeks with B&H but I want to make sure I get what I'm paying for.

Opinions?


Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/B-W-Warming-Co...0894721&sr=8-1
B&H Link: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...rizer_81A.html

 

Just out these guys. They're in HK but I don't know any one who has had problems. Likely to be cheaper than Adorama. I don't think you have anything to worry about for quality from either.

http://hvstar.net/

 

Here's the B&H link for the same filter Amazon has listed:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...ing_Color.html

 

Order a bunch of filters and lens caps from HVStar. Other than the shipping times, they are great and MUCH less.

 

Ah, thanks.

 

Thanks guys. I'll try hvstar some other time. I'm looking for quick delivery on this item since I leave for vacation next week and want to have the filter with me.

 

Yeah, HVStar delivers just after you forgot you ordered the item...

 

Unless you're using a film body for the trip, you could just adjust the white balance a few K higher than you normally would for the same effect as an 81A.

In fact, if you shoot with an 81A and use auto white balance, chances are good that your camera will cancel the effect altogether. You'd need to custom white balance anyway.

 

Ugh

I wasn't aware this filter wouldn't work with a digital.

 

It will work the same, but your camera will probably try to correct the effect because it will think the scene is too warm. It will probably still be warmer than if you didn't have it, but you could achieve the same effect by shooting raw and bumping up the temperature 500-1000K.

To use the filter on a digital body, take a white balance reading without the filter and manually set the white balance to that value. Then you can put the filter on and continue shooting as you normally would. Alternatively, you can use the "canned" WB settings for the scene (cloudy, sunny, tungsten, etc) and leave the filter on. This won't be as accurate as setting the white balance manually before using the filter, but it's definitely easier. I would still recommend shooting RAW with or without the filter just to be safe.

 

Thanks Dan.

 

Guys, http://hvstar.net/ is awesome. I got two filters from them and they also gave me some sort of lens cleaning pen, a free filter case and two cleaning pads! The filters were 50% less then what amazon was charging. Both were B&W (Schneider).

 

yeah, I just got stuff from HVstar. It was actually quite a bit quicker than I expected, shipping wise, maybe a week or so? First time I ordered from them they took ages.

- Frank

 

It's good to hear they've improved their shipping speed. Their prices are great but my first order took over a month to get to me.

 

It didn't take too long with my first order, maybe two weeks.

 

hvstar took about 2 weeks to get to me too.

The only thing that made me mad is that they wouldn't combine shipping. I was going to order a lot of stuff at once even stuff I wasn't really sure I needed, but shipping came out to like $50, so I decided just to order only what I really needed. I guess it's their loss

 

yea i think i want to pick up a CPL and some MRC UV filters from B+W.

think im gonna go the route of having UV filters cause alot of gunk eventually catches onto the front element.

 

I just ordered a Hoya 77mm PRO1 Super HMC Circular Polarizing Filter from hvstar. Hopefully shipping times will be reasonable, but the price was too good to pass up. Hvstar price: $117, B&H price for the same filter: $172. Tough to pass that savings up. I also got a Lens Pen.

Other than the fact that you have to use PayPal to pay, it was easy to order. We'll see if they live up to all the testimonials in this thread.

 

Just to follow up, I received my shipment from hvstar today in good shape and am very happy with this company. It took 10 days to arrive and everything went smoothly, especially considering it shipped from Hong Kong. They even threw in a lens cloth on top of it.

I will use hvstar again when I need filters.

 

quick question because i have to leave soon, but do you guys know if hvstar has a local shop in hong kong where i could just walk in and buy a filter, i really needed a CPL in japan (was trying to shoot thru glass and some koi fish in the ponds)

 

They show a mailing address on their website, but I'm not sure if it's an actual brick and mortar retail outlet or not. The address is:

hvStar.com
C/O Mo Tak Cheng
RM 614, Fu Tsui Hse, Wan Tsui EST
Chai Wan, Hong Kong

You may try contacting them via e-mail, Mizouse. I had a question regarding my order and they replied quickly to my query (within a day). They show their headquarters as being in Canada.

http://hvstar.net/index.asp?PageAction=CONTACTUS

 

If they have an actual shop, Chai Wan would be the location

 

I just purchased ANOTHER filter from hvstar for my 10-22.

 

Are these different filters?

http://hvstar.net/index.asp?PageActi...ROD&ProdID=651
and
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...BBZUD&v=glance

 

Yes, the one that you linked at hvstar is the better Pro1 Digital filter.

 

The Pro 1 is a more expensive model. The prices are comparable because hvstar sells filters at ridiculously low prices. The Pro 1 has the multi coating I mentioned in the other thread.

 

I will go the hvstar route

 

thanks, i wil have to look into that later as i wont be in hong kong anymore for the next week.

i was contemplating buying one in japan, but all the stores i went into only had the kenko brand, not sure if it was good or not, plus it was really really expensive.

 

Sounds like a bit of collusion.

 

Has anyone tried one of these or have an opinion on them? Seems like a good alternative to multiple ND filters.

http://www.singh-ray.com/varind.html

 

I've heard good and bad about these Vari's. the good is not having to stack. The bad it that because turn like CPL's they don't won't as well.

 

Hmmm, jupe, I'm not quite sure what you were trying to say there.

 

I was hoping to see to more responses as well. What I posted is the reason I didn't purchase one...yet. I really haven't found a end all be all review for it. And at almost $300 I'm

 

Yeah the price is high, but about equal to the 2 or 3 ND filters you would need to cover a decent range. I think the SR is an 8 stop filter, which is pretty cool.

Paging Dan Martin, paging Dan Martin.

 

LOL!

I have a few issues with the vari-nd:
1) Even though it's supposed to be an ND filter, it's really two polarizers stacked together. Because of that, there is uneven polarization if you have a lot of sky in the scene. It's a really weird effect that is hard to describe, but it's not pretty.
2) You never have any idea of how much filtering is actually being done, because the filter strength isn't marked as you turn the filter, and the strength isn't linear. There are just some dots around the filter to let you know if it's going to be brighter or darker, but no hard values for you to use. That means getting an accurate exposure can be a bit of a guessing game. Your camera's light meter gets pretty inaccurate with dark ND filters at times, so it's helpful to know what the strength is of the filter if you're going to manually calculate what your exposure should be.
3) The filter is very thick which can vignette with wide angle lenses.
4) There are no anti-reflective coatings to combat flare (not that big of a deal though).
5) It's hard to use with other filters, and not possible to combine with a polarizer.

For those reasons, I prefer to use standard B+W ND filters. I can mix and match strengths to get what I need for the scene and know exactly how strong the effect will be. I also tend to use VERY dark ND filters for long exposures in daylight, whereas the Vari-ND caps out at 8 stops.

 

yeah, what he said

 

I watched PeeWee Herman's first movie the other day, in the movie scene he was paging himself using that deep, deep voice...

 

Lol. Pee Wee FTW. Thanks for the info Dan. SR does now make a slim version of that filter, but I think I'm going to go the B+W route and get 2-3 ND's of varying strength.

 

You'll get the most use from the darker ones, unless your goal is to use fast primes wide open and still have decent AF speed. A 3-stop filter works well for that. I use a 8x (3-stops), 64x (6-stops), and 1000x (10-stops) from B+W and that covers just about every scenario I can think of. I often stack the 64x and 1000x for multi-minute exposures in the middle of the day.

 

B&W NDs are on my xmas list this year.