I haven't used the Vari-ND, but I'd think it would be convenient.


I've been quite happy with the combination of a B+W 103 (3-stop ND) and 110 (10-stop ND). For 'routine' uses (e.g. waterfalls/fountains, light trails at night, or wide-aperture outdoor portraits), I've found 3 stops to be sufficient, even with theEF 85mm f/1.2<span style="color: red;"]LII, although shutter speeds are often &lt;1/2000 (it's nice that the hood can be mounted over a 77mm filter with a 72&rarr;77mm step-up ring). With a 3-stop ND, AF and metering perform just fine. When I want a really long exposure for creative effects, the 10-stop is perfect (pre-focusing and manual exposure are needed).


I have been considering the B+W Redhancer for the fall foliage this year. But then I start wondering how that will compare to Canon's Autumn Hues custom picture style, especially since the latter can be downloaded for free... In general, I think most optical filter effects can be achieved digitally (polarization and ND effects on exposures in terms of DoF/motion blur being the exceptions).


The Singh-Ray graduated NDs do look quite nice. That's one area where you want to stay away from the standard B+W offerings, since a round grad ND filter is a bad idea. Schneider Optics (B+W's parent company) does make rectangular and square grad NDs, available as special orders from B&amp;H. They are ground/polished glass filters, meaning they are more homogeneous and planar than the optical resin versions like the Singh-Ray ND grads. The Schneider glass filters also cost about twice as much as the Singh-Ray resin filters.


Keep the widths of the rectangular filters and the size of the holder in mind - a 100mm/4" wide filter in a holder (e.g. Lee or Cokin Z-Pro) will work fine with a 17mm lens (on a 1.6x crop body), but will likely be visible with a UWA lens like the EF-S 10-22mm. For those, you'd need the Cokin X-Pro series.


Personally, I don't think I'm ready to go down the grad ND road yet. I'm reluctant to use 'ok' filters (Cokin, etc.). Good quality filters (Singh-Ray) are expensive, and rectangular filters in general are unwieldy. So far, for situations where I'd be inclined to use a grad ND, I've been quite pleased with the results of bracketed exposures and exposure fusion ('natural-looking' HDR). In some ways, that has advantages (e.g., with trees jutting above the horizon line); the disadvantages (especially ghosting due to wind, etc.) are somewhat mitigated by shooting at 8 fps.


Quote Originally Posted by ddt0725
I thought I was near done for awhile

Don't worry, you'll never be done... [:P]