ND on long telephotos

Alan_W1 wrote:

I personally have never needed more than a three stop nd filter for wildlife {bird} video stuff with my telephotos, but once autumn/winter have set in, i rarely need them at all.

Thank you, this is inline with my expectations and encouraging to hear!

That said, i have pretty much switched entirely to vnd's, for their versatility.

As your Sigma has a bayonet-fit hood, you may find that a screw-in hood will allow easier operation of a vnd filter....otherwise you would have to add/remove the bayonet hood to make adjustments to the filter {assuming you intend to use a hood}...which would be a slow/cumbersome method.

Although your sigma takes an 86mm filter, be aware that some 86mm vnd's may have a wider overall diameter than a standard solid filter rim { maybe even have a 95mm front filter thread}, which would probably not allow your bayonet hood to fit over it.

Specs for this lens says 95mm front filters. The largest I have right now is 82mm so can't test.

I would like to get the VND for convenience, but it sounds like the PolarPro VND won't allow me to use the bayonet hood (which is nice and easy to use). I guess that means standard ND, which works out to stack with the regular 82mm ones I already have for most of my other lenses I think (which I will continue to use more often anyways).

I will probably opt for a VND for my other lenses eventually. I am kind of waiting for Sony to implement it in their non-cinema bodies and then switch platforms lol. I hate messing with filters in the field.