Taco ND Filter comparison

[GeVeBe]

Hi all,

Firstly, I know this post has a link to a video however I thought it was better suited to general discussion.

I posted on here a while ago asking advice on which set of ND filters to buy.
Had some helpful replies, thank you, and finally bought the Taco-RC 4/8/16/32 set.
Tried the 8 and the 32 today, the 8 was definitely too light but possibly the 32 was a little dark, maybe the 16 would have been perfect, I will test it next time.
Would be great to hear some opinions.

Thank you

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[GadgetGuy]

I think you misunderstand the purpose of the ND filters. It's not to change the exposure, but only to slow the shutterspeed in bright sunlight to twice your frame rate to get a cinematic effect.

 

[GeVeBe]

I think you misunderstand the purpose of the ND filters. It's not to change the exposure, but only to slow the shutterspeed in bright sunlight to twice your frame rate to get a cinematic effect.

But don't they also block natural light depending on the strength of the filter?

 

[GadgetGuy]

But don't they also block natural light depending on the strength of the filter?

Obviously, they do, but that is not their purpose. Exposure is controlled solely by the shutter speed at a fixed aperture of f/2.8 and the lowest ISO of 100. The purpose of the ND filter is to reduce the bright sun shutter speed of a properly exposed frame from 1/2000 or 1/1000 to 1/50 to create a cinematic motion blur on each frame, rather than crisp frames with no blur. Personally, I never use filters because I extract 4MB jpeg stills from all my 4K videos, and I want them as sharp as possible, instead of soft!

 

[GeVeBe]

Obviously, they do, but that is not their purpose. Exposure is controlled solely by the shutter speed at a fixed aperture of f/2.8 and the lowest ISO of 100. The purpose of the ND filter is to reduce the bright sun shutter speed of a properly exposed frame from 1/2000 or 1/1000 to 1/50 to create a cinematic motion blur on each frame, rather than crisp frames with no blur. Personally, I never use filters because I extract 4MB jpeg stills from all my 4K videos, and I want them as sharp as possible, instead of soft!

Ahhh ok I see what you mean, well using the filter has given me better results so im happy.

 

[GadgetGuy]

You still need to use Auto exposure to get the benefit of them. Otherwise, your exposure will continue to vary depending upon the direction the camera is facing. You cannot use them properly with a fixed Manual exposure, which appears to be what you are attempting to do.