sigma 10-20mm....which filters? (1 Viewer)

Hi all,
I have just bought a sigma 10-20mm lens and I am now looking for filters for it.I think the best filter to go for first would be a graduated one which will bring more detail to the clouds in my landscape shots?What do you all think?Which filters do you all recommend??I am on a tight budget so the lower the price the better!Thanks in advance for any advice,cheers
Dave

daveyboy said:

Hi all,
I have just bought a sigma 10-20mm lens and I am now looking for filters for it.I think the best filter to go for first would be a graduated one which will bring more detail to the clouds in my landscape shots?What do you all think?Which filters do you all recommend??I am on a tight budget so the lower the price the better!Thanks in advance for any advice,cheers
Dave

Click to expand...

I presume you are using a digital SLR. Personally I wouldn't use a graduated filter, how about a polarizing filter.

I have a Sigma 10-20mm lens and I use a B+W multicoated UV filter, B+W are probably the finest filters made and I can find no degradation of the image when the lens is used on my Canon 350D.They also make polarizing filter. HOWEVER, on my Sigma 170-500mm lens I use one of Sigma's own multicoated filters, I can find no difference between it and the B+W filters and the Sigma filters are considerably cheaper. (I didn't know about Sigma's own filters when I bought the B+W filter for the 10-20mm lens).

Hi Dave

I use a Hoya circular polarizer on my Sigma 10-20, but it's a bit fiddly trying to rotate the filter when the petal lens hood is on. Works best when the lens hood is put in place after finding the optimum position for the filter - those big blue skies look impressive when fully saturated!

Thanks guys,I will take your advice and get a polarizer filter when I can afford it!Cheers,
Dave

Can I just bump this thread back into focus to see if anyone has any further opinions?

I've just bought the Sigma 10-20, and am blown away by just how wide it is - definitely going to have some fun with it. However, I'm confused about filters.... I definitely want to get one as protection, apart from anything else. Initial thoughts were to get a polariser, but I've read a lot of negative comments about this affecting the image inconsistently because the lens is sooooo wide! I've also seen photos illustrating it, and I don't like the effect - OK, you want a nice blue sky, but it shouldn't get darker to one side!

Would a graduated grey filter work better, to reduce over-exposure on the sky whilst leaving the landscape alone? Or would this also show uneven effects across the wide image, or leave skies looking grey and moody all the time? Is the polarising filter problem avoidable, if you know it's there and take care? Any other ideas?

cheers

Your biggest difficulty with filters on a super wide lens is vignetting.

If you use a good graduated neutral density filter that's wide enough you should get good results. Set your white balance manually and lock it if you can, though, before the shot or your camera will go nuts trying to make sense of the conflicting brightness. Obviously you can tweak this in post process if you use a RAW format.

In my opinion, I would use a Cokin Thin P Holder with a Singh-Ray Neutral Grad. In fact, that's what I do use. I find that circular threaded grad filters are nearly useless because you can't tell where the middle is and you have to put the horizon in the middle and guess.

With rectangular filters you simply slide it up or down until you're happy. I might advise going for a 3x or 4x hard line until you get more experienced. It's hard to see a 2x soft with a wide angle lens.