So, I finally popped for a 5D (hooray!) and I am buying all the needed accessories and such. I have ordered some Singh-Ray GND's to go with a Cokin P filter holder, but I am concerend about vignetting. Throw in a polarizer with the GND, and I am REALLY concerned. Any pointers based on your experiences?
Are you hand holding the GND and using a regular polarizer? Anyone using the cokin version that goes with the P holder? I got a 17-40, and I know a lot of you guys are shooting with the same. THanks for any help!
You will definitely get more vignetting with that setup. I have used the Cokin holder made with only one slot that partially addresses this; you can cut off the front two slots on your current holder too.
The polarizer itself can sometimes be a problem when shooting fully wide; Hoya makes thin polarizers (without threads).
Hand holding the GND in from of the lens is a good idea, as long as it's big enough to cover without gaps. You have to hold it away from the lens so you're not touching it during the exposure.
But using both together, expect to do some cropping during processing. Lightroom has a Vignetting control that can help too.
Congrats on the new gear... looking forward to seeing some shots!
Posted by Mark Stahlke on July 19, 2007 at 8:37 PM
I have a Singh-Ray warm polarizer that fits in the rear slot of a Cokin P holder. The polarizer rotates within the holder. Since I'm not stacking the Cokin holder on top of a regular polarizer, the Singh-Ray polarizer doesn't cause any additional vignetting.
I've heard a lot of people talk about hand holding a GND in front of the lens but I can't imagine doing it myself. I'd never get it placed correctly.
I use the Singh-Ray thin polarizer and hand hold my Singh-Ray GND's. I'm about to replace my existing GND's with his new 4x6 GND's, which are made specifically for those of us who handhold them. The larger area allows you to hand hold them w/o photographing the edges of the filter.
I don't get any vignetting on my 24mm lens w/ the thin polarizer. I suspect anything much wider than a 24mm will start to vignette, though.
Hope this helps.
Posted by Doug Andrews on July 20, 2007 at 12:49 AM
Well, you've already gotten some good advice. Since I have a D200 with a 1.5x crop factor, using a polarizer with the Cokin P holder for the GNDs on my 18-35mm lens isn't a problem even at 18mm.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on July 20, 2007 at 11:02 AM
I use the Canon 10-22 with a Canon XT. Its similar to your 17-40L on a 5D, but all of these lenses can have slight differences in what causes interference. I also have the 17-40L, but obviously this causes no problems on a crop body. The zoom mechanism on the 17-40L and the 10-22 is the same. The lens retracts into the body for a while when you zoom from the wide to middle focal lengths. This means what causes vignetting at 17mm might also cause vignetting at 20mm.
On my 10-22 a standard polarizer does not cause any vignetting from its frame. If I stacked it with another filter I think I would have problems. In vertical orientation I can easily do a polarizer and Cokin P- series holder, at least the wide one. In vertical orientation I can do the standard 3 slot Cokin P holder with no interference. In landscape orientation, I can only use the 1-slot Cokin P-wide holder and it must be square with the sensor. Anything else will block the sides of the image and you would need to crop to 4X5 ratio to get rid of the blocked edges.
Ultimately the way to get away from these problems is to switch to a 100mm system like Lee or Cokin Z-Pro. Then you can use a big 135mm polarizer in one slot and a filter in another. I would guess that if you stacked a standard polarizer and the ring for the holder, that might be just enough to cause a little vignetting, but it would be worth trying if you've already got a standard 77mm polarizer.
Thanks all for the good ideas! I kinda figured there was no way to avoid it 100%, but at least now I feel better having some first hand accounts of people with the same or very similar gear. Now it's time to put some more hurt on my credit card courtesy B&H.
Discussion
6 repliesAre you hand holding the GND and using a regular polarizer? Anyone using the cokin version that goes with the P holder? I got a 17-40, and I know a lot of you guys are shooting with the same. THanks for any help!
The polarizer itself can sometimes be a problem when shooting fully wide; Hoya makes thin polarizers (without threads).
Hand holding the GND in from of the lens is a good idea, as long as it's big enough to cover without gaps. You have to hold it away from the lens so you're not touching it during the exposure.
But using both together, expect to do some cropping during processing. Lightroom has a Vignetting control that can help too.
Congrats on the new gear... looking forward to seeing some shots!
I've heard a lot of people talk about hand holding a GND in front of the lens but I can't imagine doing it myself. I'd never get it placed correctly.
Cheers,
Mark
I don't get any vignetting on my 24mm lens w/ the thin polarizer. I suspect anything much wider than a 24mm will start to vignette, though.
Hope this helps.
On my 10-22 a standard polarizer does not cause any vignetting from its frame. If I stacked it with another filter I think I would have problems. In vertical orientation I can easily do a polarizer and Cokin P- series holder, at least the wide one. In vertical orientation I can do the standard 3 slot Cokin P holder with no interference. In landscape orientation, I can only use the 1-slot Cokin P-wide holder and it must be square with the sensor. Anything else will block the sides of the image and you would need to crop to 4X5 ratio to get rid of the blocked edges.
Ultimately the way to get away from these problems is to switch to a 100mm system like Lee or Cokin Z-Pro. Then you can use a big 135mm polarizer in one slot and a filter in another. I would guess that if you stacked a standard polarizer and the ring for the holder, that might be just enough to cause a little vignetting, but it would be worth trying if you've already got a standard 77mm polarizer.