Welders Glass ND Filter Not Anymore!

A few months ago I wrote about fun with Welders Glass as a nuetral density filter which gave reasonable results although there was a colour cast to correct. (See Earlier Post)
Since then I have purchased a set of Neutral density filters, No not the Lee Big Stopper which proved to be in very short supply and was selling at a premium price plus a filter holder and adaptor ring was also required. I settled on the Haida and bought a set of 3 filters 3 stop, 6 stop and 10 stop circular 77mm screw on type, the set of three together cost less than 1 lee filter and give excellent results with no colour cast.
The photo above at Binstead Hard, Isle Of Wight was taken at dusk and was 181 seconds at F11 ISO 100 using the 10 stopper. Using the circular screw on type means you need to frame the shot before screwing on the filter, although I have been lining shots up by looking along the lens barrel. Focusing isachieved by setting the lens to manual focus and using the depth of field scale to manually focus on the subject. With the wide angle lens I am using set at F11 everything from 3 metres to infinity is sharp. I bracket the exposures and rely on the histogram to gauge correct exposure because when using the LCD display it is too bright and what looks to be ok is always under exposed. So the display now is only used for checking framing.

The Photo below is the colour version of the photo above.

Next trip was to Bembridge and the first photo was shot again with the 10 stopper F11 ISO 100 and 91 seconds.

Next photo again at Bembridge this time at Black Rock Ledge. 10 seconds F11 ISO 100 Haida 3 Stop ND. Focus set manually to the 3 metre to infinity mark on the depth of field scale.

The results are pretty good and a bit more practice in the right conditions should give some outstanding results. The Haida circular screw on filters are not as easy to use as a slide in filter but the results are as good. The only downside is having to carry the tripod around a lot more than I have in the past.

The 3 stop 6 stop and 10 stop Nuetral Density Filters from Haida bought new on ebay as a set of 3 for less than £100 including postage have been a very worthwhile addition to the photographers box of tricks.

as always all comments are welcome