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<blockquote data-quote="480sparky" data-source="post: 187719" data-attributes="member: 15805">Scored a deal on ebay last week..... a <a href="http://www.singh-ray.com/varind.html" target="_blank">77mm thin Singh-Ray VND</a>. It showed up in the mail yestiddy, but I didn't have time to mess with it until this morning.My&nbsp; first test run in the sun today went just as I expected.&nbsp; I took a&nbsp; control image at (ISO 100, f/11) at 1/80 sec of my yard, and included a&nbsp; gray card in the scene.&nbsp; I then popped on the VND and started taking&nbsp; shots while dialing it down further and further.&nbsp; To my delight, I was&nbsp; still getting good sharp images at 9 stops (manufacturer states 2-8&nbsp; stops)!!!! And peeping at the pixel level shows very little loss of IQ.&nbsp;&nbsp; I did notice, however, that as the exposures get longer, they tended to&nbsp; warm up a bit as well (camera was set to Manual WB: Direct Sunlight).So&nbsp; just for S&amp;G, I sandwiched my B+W 10-stop ND between the Singh-Ray&nbsp; and the lens and pulled out the wired remote.&nbsp; Set the camera to bulb&nbsp; and timed a 963-second shot (that's 16 minutes for the chronologically&nbsp; challenged).&nbsp; As expected, there's a more noticable IQ loss with all&nbsp; that glass, but it's still quite manageable.&nbsp; Fact is, for most&nbsp; real-world shots, it's a non-issue.&nbsp; In addition, the image was very warm but easily corrected with the inclusion of the gray card since I was shooting raw.Vignetting?&nbsp; Even though it's a 'thin' filter, it's still much thicker than a normal filter (All&nbsp; VNDs are).&nbsp; I can easily see vignetting in the VF on my 17-35mm up to&nbsp; 20mm.&nbsp; But given I tend to 'shoot wide' anyway, the vignetting will most&nbsp; likely be cropped out in post as a matter of course.&nbsp; If it's still&nbsp; visible when it comes to saving the final JPEG, then it's time to haul&nbsp; out the Clone &amp; Heal tools.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="480sparky, post: 187719, member: 15805"] Scored a deal on ebay last week..... a [U][URL="http://www.singh-ray.com/varind.html"][COLOR=#0000cd]77mm thin Singh-Ray VND[/COLOR][/URL][/U]. It showed up in the mail yestiddy, but I didn't have time to mess with it until this morning. My first test run in the sun today went just as I expected. I took a control image at (ISO 100, f/11) at 1/80 sec of my yard, and included a gray card in the scene. I then popped on the VND and started taking shots while dialing it down further and further. To my delight, I was still getting good sharp images at 9 stops (manufacturer states 2-8 stops)!!!! And peeping at the pixel level shows very little loss of IQ. I did notice, however, that as the exposures get longer, they tended to warm up a bit as well (camera was set to Manual WB: Direct Sunlight). So just for S&G, I sandwiched my B+W 10-stop ND between the Singh-Ray and the lens and pulled out the wired remote. Set the camera to bulb and timed a 963-second shot (that's 16 minutes for the chronologically challenged). As expected, there's a more noticable IQ loss with all that glass, but it's still quite manageable. Fact is, for most real-world shots, it's a non-issue. In addition, the image was [I]very[/I] warm but easily corrected with the inclusion of the gray card since I was shooting raw. Vignetting? Even though it's a 'thin' filter, it's still much thicker than a normal filter ([U]All[/U] VNDs are). I can easily see vignetting in the VF on my 17-35mm up to 20mm. But given I tend to 'shoot wide' anyway, the vignetting will most likely be cropped out in post as a matter of course. If it's still visible when it comes to saving the final JPEG, then it's time to haul out the Clone & Heal tools. [/QUOTE]

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