Lee Big Stopper vs. Formatt Firecrest?!?!?

[LesC]

I have a (non Firecrest) Hitech 10 stopper & the blue cast is easily removed if you want to but varies according to camera used I've found - the blue cast was quite prominent on my 40D but much less pronounced on a 6D.

As to the Lee holder coming off, I've got both genuine Lee adaptor rings & a couple of other makes - 'Serk' and 'the Filter dude' (tried the Serk as they make an 82mm WA adaptor with internal thread so you can use a lens cap) and the fit is definately looser with these compared to the genuine Lee rings.

Having said that, I beleive the lee holder is designed so that if you unintentionally snag the holder on something, it will 'only' pull the holder off rather than say toppling over your camera/tripod.

 

[Hector1970]

I'd consider the Lee Filter holder a good designed.
It fits well on the ring.
It rotates easily.
I've never had it fall off but it's easy and quick to remove.
It holds the filters well.
They slide up and down easily but don't fall out.
The cast on a 10 Stop tends to be quite pleasant and it's easily removable post processing.
Hi-Tech are very good. Their 16 Stop filter is a great addition.
They fit the Lee Filter Holders perfectly.

 

[lholmes549]

I was in the same spot as you a few months back and eventually ended up going for the Lee Holder system with the Wide angle adaptors for my 16-35mm but all of the filters I chose to use are Formatt-Hitech. I have 1-3 stop ND soft grads and the Firecrest 10stop ND.

I had looked for a while at getting the Formatt holder system as well but read some reviews that discouraged me. I would have preferred the sturdier metal build of the system, but ultimately I wanted reliability and weight savings are always nice as a landscape photographer.

I have found the Lee holder system has worked a charm; it is easy to put on and take off without ever falling off unnecessarily. One small problem has been that the F-H ND grads must be slightly thinner than the Lee equivalent as they sometimes slide a bit if I move the camera about A LOT, but generally it is not a worry and they have certainly never fallen out of their own accord. I also couldnt fit the 10 stop ND PLUS foam gasket in the Lee holder, but not sure if this is everyones experience.

The ND grads are pretty neutral and have never run up against any massive issues with them. The 10 stop Firecrest is just astoundingly neutral for such a dark filter and have absolutely no problems with it compared to previous 10 stops I have owned, namely B+W.

All in all I heartily recommend Formatt-Hitechs Firecrest filters and they work well with the Lee holder system for me.

 

[RustyTheGeek]

here is a picture i shot with it the other day. the blue cast was added in post, which in this picture i actually liked. also, it made Flickr Explore.

Fantastic shot Keith!

thanks. i'm still getting a hang on the best way to utilize it.

Curious, what time of day was that taken? Please describe the experience. Thanks!

 

[GaryJ]

I use the Firecrest 16,10 & 3,also have and use B+W 10 and 6. Firecrest are the best from my experience,properly exposed images[over 5-6 mins] are almost colour cast free,a touch of blue maybe,the B+W have a slight brownish cast ,both are easily addressed in Lr or Ps.Mine are all screw in and I stack with vignetting .

 

[keithfullermusic]

Curious, what time of day was that taken? Please describe the experience. Thanks!

The sun wasn't at its highest, but i'd say it was about 45 degree up there on it's way down. i'll try and post the out of camera shot and the test exposure shot right before it so you can see what it actually looked like to the eye.

 

[jeffa4444]

The Lee Filter holder system is designed to a set tension on its rings which are made to very strict tolerances. In over 10 years of using the holder almost weekly Ive never had it "fall off" including carrying my tripod on my shoulder with the camera attached (not recommended). Ive read one report from a pro blogger complaining about their holder falling off out of how many hundreds of thousands sold around the world that seem a very very low average.
All resin filters regardless of who makes them will scratch easier than glass but glass grads would be way more expensive than resin and people complain about the cost of resin filters. All Lee resin filters are made by hand by experts and checked individually on spectrometers & for optical flatness, all glass filters are equally individually checked and its the density of 10-16 stop or more filters that create the color cast your never eliminate this in dyed in glass filters. Lee recommend setting the white balance manually with the big stopper to 10,000K the chart with the filter explains this and when used correctly does not create a color cast.
I cannot speak to Hitech firecrest filters because Ive never used them but I would doubt they are completely neutral at 16 stops.

One final point, we spend hundreds if not thousands on lenses yet complain about the cost of filters we put in front of the lens which need to be optically clear, optically flat and where possible neutral. A well made filter is as critical to the end result as the lens itself so is an optical component of the light relay system anything less degrades the image and 50MP sensors will only go to show this far quicker.

 

[jeffa4444]

The resin used in filters is the same type of resin used for modern day glasses from Nikon, Zeiss, Essilor etc. and thefor has a very high Abbe value, the eye Abbe value is between 45-50. The second most important feature is clarity early prescription glasses used CR-39 developed for B-17 bomber fuel tanks in WWII. This tended to be slightly yellow and yellowed with age, modern compounds of ADCs are neutral. They weigh half the weight of glass and have a transmission value similar to crown glass and whilst they scratch easier than glass they are far stronger. Ive resin filters Ive owned for 8 years that are perfectly fine I have no issue using them.

 

[keithfullermusic]

Here are the shots. The first one is the test (no filter), the second is with the filter straight out of camera, and the last one is the edited one.

 

[RustyTheGeek]

Thanks Kieth! Those three shots really tell a lot. Great job!

 

[keithfullermusic]

Thanks Kieth! Those three shots really tell a lot. Great job!

i should also note that they were shot with the 20mm 2.8, and it does strange color things on long shots that don't have anything to do with the filter. when i use the 35 art, they come out even cleaner.