Which ND filter is good to use on Panasonic GH4?

I have got my new Panasonic GH4 and 12-35mm f/2.8 lens recently and I am thinking in the future of getting the 100-300mm IOS lens for birds and other wildlife photography/videos and would like to know what 58mm ND filters would be good to use with both these lenses?

I have read a lot of different reviews about different ND filters including variable ones and can't figure out which are good and which are not, especially for the GH4 and those two lenses. I think a variable ND would be best.

Can anyone help? I have a budget of £100 and can't go over that.

Ive always used the Hoya variable ND filters...good quality.

I use both Hoya and Kood at present, and can't detect any noticeable differences between them for telephoto "video" use....so am pleased with both, even though they are mid-priced filters.

My main use for them are for rear mounting on my larger telephoto's, and front mounting on my short tele/medium/wide lens options.

I don't use variable nd's, but I have been using polarisers quite a lot lately for telephoto use {instead of nd's} in specific conditions, and although in theory there can be some minor degradation....I find polarisers can often improve telephoto performance when shooting through air conditions that hold moisture {usually low/ground level stuff}....and the narrow telephoto fov's tend to retain an even polarisation across the frames {which is sometimes an issue with wide angle polarising}.

I don't recall ever {in my entire life} using polarisers for super telephoto "stills" shooting {due to light loss}, but for video....I find it to be a very useful bonus option.

It depends on what you want the ND filter for. You can use 1,2 or 3 stop filters to manage the exposure in video shooting and also with fast lens in bright light if your got it wide open for shallow dof but your camera shutter has peaked. Denser ND filters are used for getting slow shutter speeds to blur motion, typically flowing water. A polarizer is the first filter one should get. It controls reflection and serves as an ND 2 (1 stop) ND filter.

I use a Hoya HD polarizer, ND8 and ND400 filter. I don't really need the ND8. I am not that keen on variable ND filters due to X banding. I'd suggest a polarizer and ND400 or ND1000. Hoya is good. So is B+W. Marami/Kenko is alright too.

racin06 wrote:

Ive always used the Hoya variable ND filters...good quality.

I have had a look at the Hoya filter and read reviews of people saying about an X that appears when you stop down the filter, so not sure if this would be the right filter for me since I don't want a X to appear. I have never used variable NDs so don't have any experience with them.

I read that the X pattern is common for variable NDs when stopped down. On a Gh4, I probably wouldn't be using an ND stopped down that much anyway as I would prefer to shoot at ISO 200-400 and shutter speeds at 1/50 to 1/100 sec or there about. I don't want a filter that will show vignetting at the wide end or produce a color shift.

DNature wrote:

I have got my new Panasonic GH4 and 12-35mm f/2.8 lens recently and I am thinking in the future of getting the 100-300mm IOS lens for birds and other wildlife photography/videos and would like to know what 58mm ND filters would be good to use with both these lenses?

For starters I don't recommend getting a 58mm ND - too small, and a strong possibility of vignetting at the wide end of the 12-35mm. I suggest a minimum of 77mm - it'll cost more, bigger filters require more glass, so cost extra. You'll need a step-up ring, but they're cheap, so no biggie. I use a 77mm Variable ND on my SLR Magic Hyper-prime 12mm f1.4 (58mm thread) and it still vignettes a bit in stills, but not in 4K video.

I have read a lot of different reviews about different ND filters including variable ones and can't figure out which are good and which are not, especially for the GH4 and those two lenses. I think a variable ND would be best.

Can anyone help? I have a budget of £100 and can't go over that.

You need to up your budget, for that kind of money you won't get anything decent - just a piece of coloured glass which will impose its colour throughout your images/video - total waste. Good variable ND's cost money, the sort of money you'll pay for a decent prime lens. Sorry there is no way around this sobering fact.

I recently purchased a Singh-Ray 77mm Vari-N-Duo Polarizing Variable Neutral Density Filter (Thin Ring) 2nd hand for Au$340. New they're around Au$640 with freight - so not cheap, but getting it for roughly half price got the GAS going in me again - couldn't resist. This variable also has a polarizer as well, so it's a pretty schmick bit of kit and I'm totally chuffed with it. The only issue is it's a little fatter with the polarizer which is probably causing the vignetting on my 12mm. No vignetting with 4k as mentioned above.

This filter covers the 3 thread sizes I have - 46, 58 and 67mm. I needed four step up rings, one each for the 58 and 67mm, and I have to use 3 rings for my 46mm threads (46-55, 55-58, 58-77) but the ND works fine on all my threads. Lastly this is a beautiful filter, and is probably as good a variable ND as one can get - also came with a spunky leather pouch - so I highly recommend.

I use a 72mm 3 stop ND filter on my 100-300. No vignetting. I have another big lens and have my eyes on the upcoming 100-400 so I went for a bigger size making it backwards compatible with other lenses and step up rings.

Sometimes 3 stops is not enough for video, so I can easily go with a faster shutter. For wildlife, smooth motion blur is not critical so modifying the shutter is easier than messing with multiple ND filters. One is enough for most situations.

But for non telephoto I prefer a variable ND for video. I use a heliopan for my Voigtlander lenses. Works great.

xerophytenyc wrote:

I use a 72mm 3 stop ND filter on my 100-300. No vignetting.

At those FL's you won't get vignetting. It's at wide FL's where vignetting is an issue.

Thanks everyone, sorry for the late reply, I was unwell. I did think I'd have to spend a lot to get a decent ND filter. Since I can't for now, I have stuck to using deeper depth of field apertures for landscapes (around f/10 during the day) or faster shutter speeds, which has worked fine in my tests so far, and I can work around until I can afford to get one, but looking at it, a bigger than 58mm would probably be the best way to go when I can afford it.

Its been a few months, but I got a variable ND for my GH4 and used it for a while, but didn't have the best results with it. I decided to spend a bit more money and got a B+W 67mm XS-Pro Digital ND Vario MRC-Nano Filter and because its a thin filter, I thought this would be better and did read good reviews of it.

The problem I had with it was that it produced a slight green tint and when using it with my Panasonic 100-300mm lens, I noticed a distinct softening of the image when zoomed into 300mm, so need a different ND and noticed a slight softening of the image on my Panasonic 12-35mm as well.

When I used that B+W variable ND, I was shooting in natural profile. Now I am shooting everything in V-log L 10-bit 4:2:2, so I don't know if that would make a difference to what ND I can use since the best way to shoot V-log is to overexpose the image to you almost, but don't, blow out the brightest highlights (well that works for me). I currently use 3 lenses which I want to use an ND filter with, Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8, Panasonic 20mm F/1.7 II and Panasonic 100-300mm.

Is there any variable NDs that won't cause a color cast and won't soften the image like that? I want to keep a consistent shutter speed for shooting video to get smooth motion and prefer not to change the aperture when recording since I want the DOF to be consistent and I don't always have the time to switch NDs so variable would be better.

The Panasonic 100-300 has a 67mm filter thread so you will not use it with a 58mm filter.  I use the Cokin (or whatever the name is these days) system, "P series" holder and simply add the proper size "ring" for each lens.  In your case, you would need a 58mm ring and a 67mm ring.  The ND filters come in solid or grad (partial neutral density and part clear) form.  They are square in shape and fit into a slotted holder.  I have found that it is the easiest way to use Neutral Density filters with my various lenses with various filter threads.  Should you decide to purchase ND filters in one size, you would have to get the 67mm to fit the 100-300 and then step down ring (67 to 58) to accommodate your smaller lens.  Be forewarned, the 67mm filters can cost quite a lot.

While the variable ND filters sound like a great idea, you would need to get one as large as your largest lens filter size and possibly a little larger to accommodate any larger lenses that you may purchase in the future.  With the Cokin system, you can add another "ring" to fit the new lens.  The Variable ND filters are very expensive when they are good..and there are some that are not very good (color cast).  My Cokins have never displayed any tendency to cause color shift or introduce any strange inclusions.  Take a look at the system (it has a new owner, but I think that "Cokin"  should bring it up) and see if they have what you may want.