Hi guys.

I've spent most of my time in photography doing portrait/sports/event photography, and I've recently taken an interest in shooting landscapes alongside my more profitable ventures. Just a few months ago I got myself a heavy duty carbon fiber tripod + ballhead along with an intervalometer, and I've been getting some great results-- buying a good tripod was a wonderful decision.

I'm in the works to buy a 5D Mark III by December. However, with some excess profits from senior portraits I've done over the summer, I should be able to make up about $600 extra for accessories, though I had some other gear in line to buy with some of that money.

Most notably, I've been looking at the Lee Big Stopper, as it seems to have the best reviews, and the square filter seems useful. It also seems great since it has swap-out filter threads, though all of my current lenses are 77mm. I've been looking into getting a 24-70mm F/2.8 II for my 5D mark III, and it's filter threads are 82mm, which wouldn't work if I had only a 77mm filter. The other side of this is that I will probably be getting a 16-35mm F/4 IS specifically for landscapes, which in turn would have 77mm filters anyway.

So is it worth it to invest in the Lee Big Stopper? The filter itself is $140, and the filter holder is $88. That's $228 just for the ND filter to be on the camera, and that's without even a CP filter. What options do I have for a CP? I'm rather confused by how all this works when it comes to the Lee system and CP filters, as well as vignetting it could cause. I also saw that Lee's options are all over $200, which would be kinda pricey for me to spend $400 for this combination-- unless you can solidly recommend this and that it'll be worth my money. Then I would just get the Big Stopper and the holding kit, and wait for the next time I get some extra accessory-related money, instead of buying a cheaper B+W option. I'm not against waiting to save money and spending high money for the best, if that's your suggestion.

Thoughts? Do I get the big stopper and wait to get the Lee CP? Or do I go the B+W route and get B+W ND and CP filters? Do I get the Big Stopper and a cheap B+W CP filter?

This is all quite confusing to a photog that typically specializes in photojournalistic shooting and doesn't know much about filters, haha.