HI all

More or less sorted now with E-PL1, 17mm, kit and 45-200. really good early experiences, pics enclosed I hope (first try!)

My question is this. Can I use circular filters on 17mm and kit? Am thinking of circular polarizer and ND but lens look kinda flimsy and retract.

Any advice or experience welcome

Lofty

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I wouldn't imagine a problem on the 17mm lens. It seems sturdy enough. No problems at all on the Panasonic (I assume) 45-200 - I have that lens myself.

I use the Cokin P-series system myself. You cannot effectively use screw-in graduated ND filters so the 'square' Cokin filters and holders make a lot more sense as you can adjust the graduation. Plus you can buy a single kit and adapter for each lens. The adapters cost about $4 each on eBay.

I think you will need a step-up ring from the 17mm lens, I cannot remember what the filter size is, but the smallest adapter for the P-series is 49mm from memory.

You could get away with A-series filters but the P-series gives a lot more freedom with wider lenses before vignetting becomes an issue. I use the P-series with up to 3 stacked filters on my 9-18mm zoom at the wide end with no issues regarding vignetting.

I bought a cheap Chinese CPL for the P-series. I don't use polarisers much but it seems as good as my screw in Cokin, Hoya and Tiffin filters plus it cost less than $20 compared to around $80 or more for a large CPL (effectively a 84mm filter on the Cokin P-series).

BTW, Cokin make a good starter set of grads including the holder. You just need the lens adapter. Add to that a 3-stop ND (aka 0.9 or ND8) and you should be in buisiness. You can add extra filters later as figure out exactly what your needs are according to your preferred subject matter.

Cheers

PeterB666