practicability of graduated neutral density filter on M9

[tredlie]

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Dear All

 

al lot of discussion has been going on in this forum about GND filters. My question is not so much technical as to which brand my be best but rather about the practicability of use of GND on M9. I like to shoot landscapes and objects where I usually have some time. I would want to use a GND on a 21mm and 35mm lens, may be also on a 50mm. Also, a polariser seems to make sense. Given these side conditions these 70mm square contraptions look like the way to go.

 

Perhaps someone is willing to share their first hand experience. Maybe, in theory all is very well, but if nobody actually uses such a setup although owning such a filter system, then that would be valuable information for me.

 

Further, words of warning or things to consider would be appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Tred

 

[antigallican]

I have all sorts of filters and rarely use any now. If I need a grad I just add it in lightroom. The exceptions are ND filters and polarisers. I’ve never even tried to use a polariser with a rangefinder.

[tredlie]

Thanks antigallican!

 

so you do use pols but not an your rangefinder (maybe you own a m240 up with liveview?).

And that is also for landscape photography, I guess.

 

cheers

 

Tred

[pgk]

FWIW, the Leica Polariser works fine - though its a bit of a faff to fit and operate. This might explain why they are dropping slowly in price on the used market. They usually come with both E39 and E46 adapters which should cover your lenses unless they are very esoteric.

 

The problem with the M9 (which I use myself) and any grad or ND in a square mount is the same positioning. I've used all sorts of filter systems like Lee and Cokin on dSLRs and medium and large format cameras and even on these it can be a somewhat tedious technical exercise, but I've not used anything similar on the M9. It is probably possible but will be both awkward and to a degree, hit and miss so, in purely practical terms, using one is highly likely to be rather frustrating which is why I've never bothered.

[tobey bilek]

Let`s see.  Imagine any scene.   Do you remember a single one without a tree, building, person, or the object not sticking over the boundary you wish to darken.  Then you can not even move the zone up or down or rotate with accuracy.  PS has tools that do all this with ease or even do a HDR properly blended.

 

Most useful filter is pola made for M to reduce reflections and darken sky 90 degrees to sun light . Very difficult to duplicate in photoshop.

[pedaes]

The Lee Filters 75 holder has a graduated scale on the front face to help align the grad filter. If you are taking landscapes you can afford to take several shots using slight adjustment. Look at their website http://www.leefilters.com and you might find some help. Personally, I find the tools in Lightroom are just as effective if you don't blow any highlights in the sky.

[Ko.Fe.]

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Polarizer on M9? Ok...

 

I see absolutely no problems to use vND filter on M9. Makes sense for landscapes. F16 and darker setting on vND. 

Or f2 and less dark setting to have it at 1/500.

 

I checked, BH has at least three 40.5 vND. Like 1-11 stops for 17$ from known manufacturer or 180$ from fancy B+W.

 

Holders thing... meh... to much hassle with same result as vND.

[pico]

I see absolutely no problems to use vND filter on M9.

 

That is interesting. Early on I found profound issues with variable ND filters over a digital sensor. I am discouraged to try again.

[tredlie]

Dear Respondents

 

thank you for your answers! Summing up: so far nobody seems to be positive about using

the holder setup on a M9 because of "hassle".

 

As the vND: maybe I have a look into that. But that is of course a different animal altogether,

relative to GND.

 

greetings

 

Tred

[antigallican]

Thanks antigallican!

 

so you do use pols but not an your rangefinder (maybe you own a m240 up with liveview?).

And that is also for landscape photography, I guess.

 

cheers

 

Tred

 

 

On the SL. Yes, only for landscapes or similar. As everyone says, it's a bit of a pain to use on the M9. I don't use the M9 with a tripod either, though I expect some people do.

[Topsy]

Dear All

 

al lot of discussion has been going on in this forum about GND filters. My question is not so much technical as to which brand my be best but rather about the practicability of use of GND on M9. I like to shoot landscapes and objects where I usually have some time. I would want to use a GND on a 21mm and 35mm lens, may be also on a 50mm. Also, a polariser seems to make sense. Given these side conditions these 70mm square contraptions look like the way to go.

 

Perhaps someone is willing to share their first hand experience. Maybe, in theory all is very well, but if nobody actually uses such a setup although owning such a filter system, then that would be valuable information for me.

 

Further, words of warning or things to consider would be appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Tred

 

Spookily I have just tried an experiment with my Lee Seven5 system ND Grad and CPL on my M9 with Elimart 21mm 2.8. Yes indeed it was faffy but successful except the CPL vignetted such that I only had usable image from about 24mm FoV. The ease of the Seven5 system is that you can take the holder off to set the filter in the slot so my method was to take a straight shot then review, decide on the correct filter (ND6 Soft) then fit it according to the divide on the screen by eye before replacing the holder on the lens and re-measuring exposure then shoot. It worked fine and since landscape photography is slow and methodical it wasn't a problem. As for the CPL what I did was to set the shot as before then remove the holder and fit the CPL, rotate for the effect required then re-fit, re-measure exposure and shoot. Again successful but the usable image area was only equivalent to about 24mm. Of course there would be no such vignetting with a 35mm lens or longer. Hope this helps.