£10 10-Stopper better than a Lee?

hi guys and welcome to this week's vlog I'm reviewing ten slop filters an expensive one uh not too expensive one and a dirt cheap one surely this can't be any good caning so let's briefly look at the 3/10 stop filters that we have on offer well I'm sure most of you out there certainly if you're serious about your landscape photography will know the Lee brand that's the Lee ten stop filter costs around about a hundred pounds I'm going to compare that against this nice piece of glass by a company called zou me never heard of them before but that cost around about 50 pounds so this half the price as the Lee ten stop filter and the next one on offer is this budget range ten stop filter that surely is rubbish isn't it I cost around about ten pound now how did they get on [Music] let me very briefly talk to you about the testing conditions that I'm using because this is very very important and the reason why I'm saying that is because I'm going to run what I would consider to be a real-world test on these a test on these that anybody would do if they bought one and I'm not going to do a scientific test on them I'm not interested in a scientific test now there's a massive difference they're a world apart between a scientific test and a real-world test so let me very briefly explain if I was going to do a scientific test on this the first thing I would do I'd grab my gray card I would take white balance grab a custom white balance setting for my camera my camera would be set to manual and therefore I would be guaranteed the exact same lighting results throughout the frame on all three images that I would shoot using these filters but that's not what you would do in the real world in the real world what you would do if I bought this first and foremost I'd have nothing to compare it to if I bought this likewise I'm only buying this I'm having nothing to compare it to so you don't know what's good and what's bad so where the real world test comes in is simply this I would get the correct settings in my camera I would throw this on the front of my camera I grab a really nice image I'd look at the picture and I think yeah that's quite nice this particular tensor filter which is the Li one tends to offer a slight blue hue if it's got a slight blue hue then in my post processing software I would go to my white balance tool and I would then fix that's like blue hue if I wanted to that's what I would do I would make sure this is working correctly which obviously will be doing I look my pitch just got a slight blue hue to it if I had a yellow or a green hue makes the difference if I can click a button to correct it and have the image look like it did when I was there taking the picture then that is job done so not interested if any of these offer any hues whatsoever and the reason why I'm saying that because this is the most expensive one the lead 10 stop oaks which costs a hundred pound and this will offer me a slight blue hue you'll know that if you already own one of these in you're serious about your photography none of us care about it we don't because we know straight away in my post-production software click of a button and I'm gonna fix my white balance so if I can do that with this then why not do it with that why not do it with the budget range that's all I'm interested in this could be there won't be a comparison between them if you bought one of these you'd spend a tenner on it you'd look at the results looks ok can I make it look nicer can I get the white balance right can I get my brightness levels right will it detract or deteriorate the quality of the image by doing that if it's a slight tweak then the answer is no job done that's it that's the testing conditions and that is much more important to me than any scientific test [Music] okay so let's take a look at our images now I'm going to be loading my images into a CR which is the pre Photoshop screen but didn't really matter everything I'm only going to be touching a couple of sliders with regards to tweaking the image ever so slightly of course the white balance will be tweaked as well but you can do that in any software including like room and anything so it's not a Photoshop lesson so don't worry about that okay so let's take a look at these three images here now then I'm now looking at these images in bridge these are the three images that I've captured now I'm not going to make a comparison between them both and just for your own peace of mind these were all shot pretty much at exactly the same time during the day the light may have changed ever so slightly because with me messing around and doing bits to camera I took all three images within the hour but the light didn't change to my eyes anyway much at all so these three images should in theory be exactly the same but remember we're not doing a scientific test on these we're doing a real-world test so let's have a quick look at these let's throw these into Photoshop this will now open up into our pre ACR screen and the first thing I'm gonna do I'm gonna click on the middle one here this one here is the first shot that I took and this is the one I took with my Li 10 stop filter don't need to do the round with this too much because I know that this is brilliant because this is the one I own but very quickly it's have a quick look I'm gonna come up to here I'm going to click on remove chromatic aberrations and my lens profile corrector that's going to be the very first thing that I'm going to change now as you'll see at the moment everything on the right hand side they're all set to zero everything down here is all set to zero so there's no improvements being made to this image at this present moment in time so you can see clearly the image was shot perfectly I'm not sure if I've mentioned it by the way but the settings were a two minute exposure at ISO 100 and f11 so f11 ISO 100 with a two minute exposure all three images were shot using exactly the same settings auto white balance was selected that's the important key here because that's more than likely what your white balance will be set at so let's have a look at my Lee image now than all my image that was shot with my leaf filter straight off the bat I think it looks fantastic what I might do is put a slight if I look up here as well the histogram looks okay couldn't see a nice range of colors but of course it's quite bland but it didn't really matter the most important thing is there's no peaking to the right no peaking to the left so what I'm gonna do now I'm going to push my white slider up a bit push my black slider down hey that's going to give my image a bit more of a punchy look not too much and then I'm going to push my clarity slider at around about 10 or 15 so let's do 15 at this present moment in time remember I'm not making a comparison between the others I'm just getting this one so it looks right for me that one there is absolutely spot-on and let me give you a a hint here up the top left hand side here this is my white balance tool if I click on it now the idea is now that if I can select gray white or black in the image then it will make a suggestion to me that this is the correct white balance so it's a good test for you I'm gonna choose this area here that area there on top of the shell roughly there if I click that because that looks great to me that's gonna give me a white balance that Photoshop thinks is correct and I think that's quite nice as well I'm gonna add just a very slight blue hue to it very slight blue tint there you go I'm happy with that job done I'm happy with that I'm not comparing this to anything so that gets full max for me 10 out of 10 every time now I'm gonna move on to my Zoe filter this is my Zoe filter it's a nice piece of glass and it costs fifty pound it's identical in looks to the Li ten stock filter and it works obviously using the same holder system as well it doesn't have a seal around it like the the Li ten stop filter does and if you look at the glass ever so slightly it seems to have a white hue on one side and a very slight blue hue on the other side again I'm really not interested it's a good quality feel to that glass it's also important to point out and this is important to point out maybe I should have said it at the beginning of the video that this isn't sponsored in any way I'm not being sponsored to try and push a 10 pound filter or a 50 pound filter I swear ant this is just mine and it just so happens I broke one of these last week I'll show my broken one I broke one of these before Christmas actually and I borrowed this and borrowed this off my mate Tony Tony such a tight the proverbial he actually lent me this this is how this whole thing has come about by the way so it's not a paid for sponsored ad or anything okay so this one is 50 pound this is only one if I look at this one now remember it's important not to compare them I'm going to click on this one here and look at my image because this is the only filter that you're likely to own it you're gonna fork out fifty pound for it okay let's grab my white balance tool let's click on roughly the same place of a click on that there that's going to give me the same white balance pretty much as my leaf filter now I'm gonna push the whites ever so slightly I'm going to push this the black services slightly and I'm gonna push a little bit of an exposure there and that picture there to me looks tremendous I don't even need to push the exposure histogram looks good it's it's full marks for me that one there is absolutely fantastic this is performing in exactly the same ways Miley 10 stop filter is it really is whilst I'm doing this I'm looking at the area from back to front all across the image you understand what I'm saying just to make sure this consistency throughout with the lighting there's no shadowy lines there everything is perfect I am very very very happy with the results of that very happy so if I bought that and I had nothing to compare it to I would think that that would be 50 pound well-spent okay now let's talk about this one this is quite literally a piece of plastic and it cost 10 pound it looks good quality wise it's very difficult to tell whether it's plastic or glass it's well it just feels it feels like a good piece of kit but the proof is in the pudding remember don't compare it because I know you could see or if you look on the left-hand side there you can clearly see there's a difference in lighting we're not interested in that because if you bought this you'd want to see what it was like white balance tool let's click on the same place now we've got pretty much the same white balance now I'm going to come up it's clearly a little bit darker you can see the histogram slightly to the left when bro got nothing to compare it to in theory I'm gonna grab my exposure tool I'm gonna move it to the right now I've moved it to just slightly over a stop now I'm gonna grab my white push my whites a bit more and I'm gonna push my black sister make it slightly punch here give it that more contrast II feel and there you go the lighting is consistent throughout the whole of the image I'm looking now and it looks perfect it doesn't look any different from the other two now I've post-processed the work all I'm gonna do now is make a comparison between the three of them and they all look pretty much identical the only slight issue you've got is this particular one it's taking a picture slightly darker than the other two which means this is probably operating more like an 11 stop filter than it is a 10 stop filter but once again if you bought that and you knew that you were taking a picture with us in your images are always slightly too dark then the chances are you're gonna shoot with an extra stop of light and what that means is if you're shooting with a 30 second exposure then that 30 second exposure will be a minute exposure just to give it an extra stop of light which would equate to exactly what I've just done there in Photoshop by adding a stop of light in post and would it deteriorate the image negligible absolutely negligible so there you go I'm loving that now let me just just do one final test and the one final test is because we're shooting through glass or plastic I just want to zoom into each of these images just to make sure that the quality hasn't deteriorated okay it's not a bit wishy-washy or a bit smudgy glasses back on okay so let's have a quick look let's zoom into a hundred percent this is the first image remember you're looking at this probably low res so it's not gonna look as good to you as it will do for me but this at the moment is Miley 10 stock filter that looks absolutely perfect as I imagined it to be because I always use it move it across everything looks fine yes it's showing me that I've got a dirty sensor but hey ho that's what always happens next let's move down to my Zoe one which is the 50-pound one there are there abouts let's zoom in a hundred percent let's do the same thing I'm more interested the eye will be drawn to Mary shell so I want to make sure that the Mary shell detail is perfect and let's make a comparison with the zooms in that they're renders enamine sorry okay that there might be a slight there perfect that might be a slight difference with the white balance but I'm going to tweak that white balance until I get it right for me but with a very quick edit that looks fantastic no issue with that at all I've obviously checked these beforehand anyway so I know that looking throughout the frame there's no issues in the corners there's no vignette in and so on and now let's look at the ten pound one let's zoom in to 100% 100% we're back on their shoe there you go and again I only want to make sure could were shooting through glass or shooting through plastic it's not a bit wishy-washy and that there let's make a comparison between the 10-pound one under X to the Li ten stop filter okay okay right well there you have it now in conclusion let's just very quickly make a conclusion here this is my Li ten stop filter and I would not be without my Li ten stop filter I love and adore it like I say I did break one before Christmas I instantly then rushed out and bought another one it cost me around about a hundred pound so that's for me every time having said that I'm comparing it against this company I've never heard of called so me and I'm making a comparison and it's absolutely identical identical so if you want to save fifty pound then buy one of these I'll leave the links by the way below this ten pound one apart from it shooting slightly too dark you've got to buy this filter I suppose I'm not know if you're a professional if money's no object you're gonna buy one of these two without question you are but if you want to dip your toe into the long exposure photography you know you don't need to spend a hundred pound or fifty pounds try it with this ten pound filter I promise you you promise you as long as you compose process your work slightly you won't be disappointed it's brilliant it really really is good and I I want to sit here and throw this against the wall and be frustrated by it and show you how Japanese or Chinese technology is by can't because you can see the results for yourself apart from being slightly too dark a slight tweak and it's as good as the others it's brilliant now there's one slight downside to this particular one these two here will work with the standard Li 100 mil front end slot in system this one here is a screw on this is probably one of the reasons why it's so cheap positives and negatives with a screw on filter well there are fuff as a negative as a positive you get no lead light no light leaking in so there are some positives with it so that's not too bad the other negative thing with this as well is if I screw this into the front of my lens there isn't a way of me attaching my li filter system to the front of this so this screw on filter won't work with my li filter system so if you currently have a li filter system or one that's like it just for your neutral density filters for instance then you just won't work in conjunction with it but you know hey ho that's for you to decide whether you want to buy it or not my conclusion is simply this these two identical you've seen that for yourself this one will shoot slightly darker but the images are absolutely brilliant as long as you can put up with the screw in filter that's it it's as simple as that you decide

Channel: Gary Gough (Pro Photographer)

Views: 54,998

Rating: 4.890027 out of 5

Keywords: nd filter, Lee filters, graduated filters, 10 stop, 10 stop filters, cheap filters, review, medium grads, landscape filters, comparison, Gary Gough, big stopper, how to, neutral density, ND, long exposure, ZOMEi, neutral density filter, ND filter, ND grad, cheap and filter, expensive and filter, photography

Id: Mo9Ndw3iqIg

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 10 2019