Filter Holder for Tiffen ND Grads

[chasinglight]

Hi,

I am looking at buying one or two Tiffen ND Grads. I have decided to go with Tiffen due to their renown color neutrality. Also I like that glass is much more resistant to scratching than resin. Previously I bought a set of Hitech resin filters and they came scratched out of the sealed packaging! So that doesn't give me much faith in resin. Anyway I initially wanted to go with the 100mm filters and accompany them with the Lee Foundation Kit Filter Holder....until I saw that the Tiffen 4x6 (100mm) ND Grads are over $400 a piece! WOW! Way too much. As I actually don't need filters that big I started to look at the Tiffen "P" series filters which are much more reasonable; roughly $160.

My question is, is there a "P" series filter holder that is more robust than the standard Cokin "P" series holder? Something more like the Lee filter holders? I found this aluminum 85mm holder from Hitech

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/884360-REG/Hitech_ht85amh_85mm_Aluminum_Modular_Filter.html

does anyone have any experience with this holder? moreover does anyone have experience with this holder and tiffen filters?

is there something else I should be looking at? is the cokin "P" series holder really all I need/the quality is actually pretty good?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Q8-MC]

Buy a Lee Filter is the best brand

[neuroanatomist]

As I actually don't need filters that big

Maybe you don't need them today.  The P-series holder will cause mechanical vignetting on wide lenses, even the wide angle P holder will vignette at the wide end of UWA zooms. One great thing about the rectangular filter setup is that it can be essentially future-proof if you get the right size to start. I'd go 4x6" now.

If you're set on glass, you might also look at the Schott glass NDs from Schneider (B+W's parent company). 

[chasinglight]

thanks for the responses so far. Since taking up photography as a hobby a while back I am far too familiar with buying something that suits me now, only to upgrade a few months later so I think I will look at a 4x6 filter as neuro suggest. I decided to look at lee filters again as their 4x6 system is considerable cheaper than tiffen's. the only thing that bugs me, besides resin scratching easier than glass, is that the adapter ring for the Lee filter holder is $60+. I don't mind paying for quality, and I find the $88 for the filter holder to be reasonable, but over $60 for an adapter ring seems a bit ridiculous. Has anyone tried any of the 3rd party adapter rings? are there any differences compared to the Lee adapter rings? For example I found this one on ebay for $29

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-77mm-LEE-Compatible-Wide-Angle-Adapter-Ring-for-Filter-Holder-/330905233352?pt=Camera_Filters&hash=item4d0b7d27c8

thanks

[gary samples]

I just did the  Lee Foundation  Kit & 82mm adapter ring  today! still looking at glass thinking with just going with the lee 4x6" Graduated Neutral Density set

[chasinglight]

Gary, take this with a grain of salt, but do you really need a filter set? I know you get 3 filters for $260 vs $108 a piece, but if you had 3 filters you really don't need to all be hard or soft edge. Probably a 0.6 soft, 0.9 hard, and a 0.6 reverse grad. That's what I have been thinking about anyway.