Hand holding filters in front of Panasonic 7-14mm lens?

[crcal]

Do any of you guys have the Panasonic 7-14mm lens and Lee/Cokin style ND/GND filters? Is it possible to hand hold ND or GND filters in front of it and get good results?

This is the only thing stopping me from buying this lens, so please let me know if you have any experience with this. Thanks!

 

[chuckgoolsbee]

I have a 7-14, and I LOVE it.

I haven't tried holding a filter in front of it though. The front element is rather large, so I'd imagine it would require a pretty big filter, and a tripod of course. I almost always shoot hand held (and hanging out a car door) so it would require some gymnastics over and above my usual to try it.

Your state is the one out of the 50 I have yet to visit, so if you pop for a ticket I'll fly over and bring my lens for you to try!

 

[crcal]

I'll buy you a ticket in exchange for your lens! :smile:

Basically I'm wondering if anyone's ever done something like this:

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http://www.naturescapes.net/docs/index.php/category-photographic-technique/371-steve-fines

but just holding it in front of your lens.

 

[dko22]

I had a quick try doing this with a Hitech grey grad and found it didn't work --there seemed to be reflections generated so I quickly gave up. Which isn't to say that with more perseverance, you might not be able to do something.

 

[crcal]

Thanks for your reply. I'm guessing the reflections were from lots of light leaking in because of the petal shaped hood. If it could all be blocked out I think it could work. I wonder if it's worth the trouble though. Just thinking out loud...

 

[JoepLX3]

Tape?

 

[dko22]

Thanks for your reply. I'm guessing the reflections were from lots of light leaking in because of the petal shaped hood. If it could all be blocked out I think it could work. I wonder if it's worth the trouble though. Just thinking out loud...

yes, "is it worth the trouble" is really the question? To be honest, I usually prefer to use the graduated filter in Lightroom and only use the real McCoy in more extreme situations. Of course you need to watch you don't blow the sky in the first place.

 

[PeterB666]

Reflections will be a big problem with the universal adapter as the light can get in from behind. It should be relatively easy to cut a donut piece of black card or some dark, dense foam (which could be self supporting).

The Cokin style filters also pick up reflections from the edges of the filters themselves and display them as cloudy patches if you are not careful.

At 7mm, you may find the effects uneven anyway due to the extreme angles near the edges of the frame with light going through more plastic there. It is sometimes an issue with a 9mm lens.

 

[PeterB666]

yes, "is it worth the trouble" is really the question? To be honest, I usually prefer to use the graduated filter in Lightroom and only use the real McCoy in more extreme situations. Of course you need to watch you don't blow the sky in the first place.

If doing sunrise or sunset, I quite often have to stack a pair of 3-stop grads including a reverse grad. You would have to do an extreme lot bracking and mucking around in Photoshop or anything else and still be more compromised.

 

[Djarum]

I had semi-successful results holding a 52mm filter in front of the Oly zoom lens. But I;m not sure on the the panny ultrawide zoom.

 

[dko22]

If doing sunrise or sunset, I quite often have to stack a pair of 3-stop grads including a reverse grad. You would have to do an extreme lot bracking and mucking around in Photoshop or anything else and still be more compromised.

I guess that in sunsets (a rare phenomenon in cloudy Scotland), I usually prefer to have a fairly dark foreground anyway though if I didn't, I'd certainly agreed with you. After a brief burst of enthusiasm, I'm no longer really a fan of HDR and tend to prefer the greater contrasts between light and dark which photography naturally brings rather than to try and replicate what the human eye sees in terms of tonal ranges

 

[crcal]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I suppose if you plugged up the holes due to the petal shaped hood where light could get in to cause reflections this would work.

We should ask Lee to make something like they made for the Nikon 14-24mm and its petal shaped hood.

Lee Filters USA | Filter Holder for Nikon 14-24mm lens

But it would take months and months.