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I was going to get a B+W ND Filter which is supposedly 6 f stops and the one for flowing water and around £60 but discovered one that is 10 stops and £80 but is supposedly for bright light like furnaces and things. I found that this photo was taken using the 10 stop filter (from comments well down the list somewhere) http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevwed/37 ... 092127222/ and I'd quite like to have that as well.

So what I'm wondering is, if I buy the £80 one can it do the job of the £60 too - by altering camera settings perhaps? or would I have to buy both to do the two jobs?

I have cheap filters which seem to be hopeless

I've said this elsewhere, but don't buy screw-in filters because you'll then have to buy a different filter for each lens you have that has a different filter thread. A significantly cheaper option would be to buy into the Cokin P series filters. What you need is a filter holder, a lens adapter (one for each filter thread size you use) and then you can spend money on the filters themselves which cost about £10 a pop.

All in all, I've spent about £60 and I have a set of ND and graduated ND filters that work on all my lenses.

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PhilipGoh.com

Hmm, now I'm confused because I saw a filter tutorial thing on here that says you need the circular type because "they are designed to not confuse modern auto-focus and metering systems so that's the type you'll need for your DSLR"

They're talking about "circular polarizers" and the circular bit has to do with the way the filter works and not the shape of the filter.

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PhilipGoh.com

Ah okay. I've been looking at the Cokin ones and they are £11.65 compared to the £80 B+W make but are they as good, could you tell the difference between the same photo taken with both?

They're pretty good, and you'd be very hard pressed to tell them apart just by looking at the results.

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PhilipGoh.com

Ok thanks

is the Cokin P series what I'd need for my 18-105mm lens? (it is internal focus)

P series works with most (all?) lenses. Make sure you get the correct sized lens adapter, which is 67mm for your Nikon 18-105mm.

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PhilipGoh.com

On the subject of the ND grad screw in/ p series comparison- I have used both types of filters on the front of my wide angle lense and have had far greater results with the screw in filters. I know that the p seris allows you to easily adapt for different lense diameters but I only use one lense diameter anyway. The 10 stop BW filter has given me fantastic results ( in my opinion) and was worth the hefty £79 paid.
I took the photograph which was mentioned earlier in the thread and this was a long exposure in bright daylight with good results. The only downside with such a strong ND filter is that you have to do all your composition, metering and focusing before the filter goes on the lense which can be time consuming. I have used the p series ND grads and when you get further up the stop range ( 6-10) because the filters are so dark the light bleeds into the frame from the open edges of the filter system. I quite often use the 10 stop during the day with an ND 4 grad p series + holder on the front of the ND 10
Go for the scrtew ins!

Hello trevwed, and welcome to the friendly Camera Labs forum!
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Quite familiar with the ND grads you are. But using 10 stop (!) filters Never heard of those. What are you achieving with this? Do you have any more examples of its use?

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

A colleague also has a 10 stop. Hard to even see through it. This is for when you really want a long exposure in bright light e.g. to make people "disappear" from a busy street.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

I also want to buy an ND filter but not really sure where to start.

Ideally I'd like to use on on my Canon 50mm 1.8 and Canon 10-22mm to help me blur pedestrian movement in daylight but to keep the surroundings nicely exposed.

Any suggestions?

Also, if I wanted to use the same lenses but to blur transport movement, what would I need then?

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Canon 450D, several different lenses and some other camera gear.
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