Posted by bill meikle on November 12, 2009 at 12:26 PM
I bought a variable neutral density filter from Light Craft in Hong Kong and tried it today. It is basically crap with poor light attenuation resulting in terrible variable light on the image. So it doesn't work, and I am sure they will not refund. Luckily it wasn't expensive.
Buyers beware, cheap Variable ND filters are high risk!
www.lightcraftworkshop.com
Guess I should just buy a fixed ND filter and use that.
Posted by Ken Wyatt on November 12, 2009 at 7:35 PM
Interesting Bill. I'm not questioning your results, but I wonder if yours is assembled wrong? If one of the linear polarizers is flipped backwards, it may not work right. It seems the reviews are fairly positive. Here are some comments from DPReview:
Hey Bill, you can return it for a replacement according to the website, I just received mine on Oct 30, and took it to Zion for a test. I love mine, it works fantastic in my opinion. Yours might just be a bad one. Don't give up on it.
Posted by bill meikle on November 13, 2009 at 10:14 AM
Well after more experimentation it does kind of work. It starts at a 2 stop base and then is good through maybe 5 stops, then it gets pretty dangerous since the dark areas start to appear. So it is usable as long as I don't stray too far into the dark zone! I'll take a look at DPreview. Thanks. They did say they would refund me too so that's comforting but I'll probably keep it.
Discussion
3 repliesBuyers beware, cheap Variable ND filters are high risk!
www.lightcraftworkshop.com
Guess I should just buy a fixed ND filter and use that.
http://search.dpreview.com/?q=Fader+ND
Maybe you could ask them to exchange it...
Best, Ken