82mm Hoya Neutral Density x400 Filter availability

[THX723]

This thing is incredibly hard to come by, as they are in very limited production. No words on when Hoya will start to mass produce them. Seems a couple Australian retailers are the only reputable sources I can find today and they made sure you get milked for double the price.

Has anyone had any luck sourcing these with a reputable retailer in the US? 

No eBay or auction houses please. The risk of counterfeits is far too likely.

Thanks!
 

[neuroanatomist]

I'd just get the B+W 82mm 3.0 (10-stop) filter.  B&H has the uncoated, and gets the MRC version in stock occasionally.

[THX723]

Thanks Neuro.

I love B+W and use their filters exclusively for all my lenses. That is with one exception being neutral density filters. For that I much prefer Hoya's x400 series. I couldn't get past the excessive brown cast that the B+W exhibits. It is certainly correctable in post/RAW, but an eye sore in-the-moment and far from WYSIWYG. It would also be nice to keep the consistency with my existing 77mm Hoya ND x400 filter.

[veraphoto]

Hello,

Great topic. I've had an ND filter in sight for a couple of months now. I am looking to be able to use a wide open aperture 1.2 to 1.8 (super narrow depth of field) in studio portraits and my Elinchrom lights don't go low enough, so my solution is to use an ND filter. Most people use the ND filters for long exposures in landscape photography, but there is little to none references to studio usage of an ND filter.

So I would ask:
1) Would you propose a better (cheaper) solution to dimming the flash in the studio?.
2) Variable ND filters from Singh-Ray?. This is what McNally and other photographers recommend as the rolls royce of ND filters. Opinions?
3) Any references that you could think of this usage of ND filters in studio?

Thanks in advance,

Vera

[THX723]

You bet. Neutral Density filters can also be used with great success under studio environment.

I would still recommend high quality filters from Hoya, B+W, and the likes, while caution against using variable-type regardless of brand. Variable ND filter consists of two polarized filters and dealing with light polarization in a studio can be a head-ache and possibly expensive.

Here is an excellent video on the subject that might shed some light (pun intended).

http://youtu.be/Qxz49Psqg3w
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[veraphoto]

Great Video. Thanks so much for posting this!!!. I have been looking for something like this for a while.

To summariza your point: You would prefer using fixed ND filters in a studio enviroment because of the effect of the variable ND has on the light?. What is the negative effect?

[THX723]

Yes, that's correct. Fixed ND filters would be preferred.

The issue with variable ND filters is consistency. As they are polarizers by nature, the amount of light attenuation changes with respect to the incident angle from the light source. To make matters worse, different light sources may have different polarization and can be altered yet again if diffusers, reflectors, and the likes are introduced. Not impossible to deal with, just more unnecessary fiddling in my opinion.

This, by the way, is also the reason why markings on variable ND filters are just that, markings (no hard numbers). The actual values change for the reasons described above.