[glinda]

has anyone figured out what the nd filter does yet ? is it worth setting it 'on' , why would i want to use it ? can't see much , if any, difference in having it on or off as yet. is there a definitive answer as to when it should be used ?

[Adam]

The ND filter lets you shoot jpegs when say the maximum aperture would otherwise always overexpose.

[joe.penn]

Well, an ND filter can be used for a number of different things, the most common is to get longer shutter speeds in brighter scenes. ND filters can also be used for portrait work, when you want to use a wide open aperture of f/1.4 while shooting portraits outside, normally depending on the light without an ND filter your shutter speed may be out of the bodies shutter speed range, an ND filter will solve this issue for you. Also for portrait work, lets say you want to keep your lens somewhat open (1.4, 1.8) for dreamy looking portrait work, you also want to use a flash to get really good subject isolation from the background and the portrait session is outside on a bright day - the only way you can achieve this [at time of exposure] would be with an ND filter.

[joe.penn]

normally depending on the light without an ND filter your shutter speed may be out of the bodies shutter speed range

Touching a little more on this, faster shutter speeds can have an adverse affect on IQ - the longer your shutter is open, and this is at any aperture, the more of the full light spectrum/photons gets to the sensor, dynamic range is also affected slightly by extremely fast shutter speeds. This is another way an ND filter can help your overall exposure.

[Steve.Ledger]

Does anyone have any comparison photos take with the Q with ND enabled and ND disabled?
My experiments don't show any difference one way or the other..

[baro-nite]

It's not just for jpeg shooting. With the Q the best apertures are at the wide end, because the effects of diffraction kick in around f/5.6 on those tiny pixels. So the time to use it is when you would otherwise have to stop down past f/4 or so even when using the fastest shutter speed. I must admit I haven't done this yet.

[ChrisJ]

Because the tiny sensor on the Q doesn't like apertures below f8, in fact you can't go below f8 on the Q lenses, there are times when the light is just too bright, so they fitted a built in ND filter that you have to activate in the menu.

Other uses are to deliberately get slower shutter speeds, when photographing flowing water for instance, to get some deliberate blur into the shot. and to use wide apertures, for less depth of field for example, in bright light when you might not have a fast enough shutter speed available to let you use it.

Normally it's turned off.

It will make no difference to image quality, and has caught me out once. Low light, bracketed shots, on a tripod, it took me a while to realize why I was getting shutter speeds of several seconds !! Here's the image it took. 3 frames 2 stops apart blended in Photomatix Pro. I shoot a lot of HDR with my Q as it's so easy to get the bracketed shots, a huge plus for me.

Sheffield_04 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Chris

[GibbyTheMole]

Here's the image it took.

Neat shot, Chris! :-)

[Q68]

Because the tiny sensor on the Q doesn't like apertures below f8, in fact you can't go below f8 on the Q lenses, there are times when the light is just too bright, so they fitted a built in ND filter that you have to activate in the menu.

Other uses are to deliberately get slower shutter speeds, when photographing flowing water for instance, to get some deliberate blur into the shot. and to use wide apertures, for less depth of field for example, in bright light when you might not have a fast enough shutter speed available to let you use it.

Normally it's turned off.

It will make no difference to image quality, and has caught me out once. Low light, bracketed shots, on a tripod, it took me a while to realize why I was getting shutter speeds of several seconds !! Here's the image it took. 3 frames 2 stops apart blended in Photomatix Pro. I shoot a lot of HDR with my Q as it's so easy to get the bracketed shots, a huge plus for me.

Sheffield_04 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Chris

Nice photo indeed, congratulations !

[msmoore]

very nice shot! but can I ask if that tree is being distorted or is it just the bend of the tree, i see the lamp isn't bent or anything, but that tree is on the left side.

Also, I am looking to buy this camera because of the built in ND filter and trying to take long exposure shots during the day, but might I be disappointed if i can't stop down past f/8?

Thanks

[baro-nite]

The built-in ND filter is only 2 stops, so it's not going to be nearly enough for long exposures in bright light.

[ChrisJ]

very nice shot! but can I ask if that tree is being distorted or is it just the bend of the tree, i see the lamp isn't bent or anything, but that tree is on the left side.

Also, I am looking to buy this camera because of the built in ND filter and trying to take long exposure shots during the day, but might I be disappointed if i can't stop down past f/8?

Thanks

No, that's just how the tree is. You would have to use more ND filters (or a variable ND filter) to get slow shutter speeds in bright daylight, as you would with a larger sensored camera. At f8 the Q has a wider depth of field than an APS sized camera has at f16 so the f8 is not really a limitation.

Chris

[glinda]

so , have i got this correct then : if i were outside in bright light and wanted to shoot at f3.5 ( cause over that causes- diffraction-- a whole another subject ! ) or f 4 or whatever, then i would put on the nd filter setting and that would help me to get a better image somehow ? by slowing the shutter speed ? and would i have to have the camera on a tripod for that ?

[baro-nite]

so , have i got this correct then : if i were outside in bright light and wanted to shoot at f3.5 ( cause over that causes- diffraction-- a whole another subject ! ) or f 4 or whatever, then i would put on the nd filter setting and that would help me to get a better image somehow ? by slowing the shutter speed ? and would i have to have the camera on a tripod for that ?

msmoore brought in another use of ND filters, allowing long exposures in daylight. That requires darker filters than what's built in to Q lenses. The Q lenses' built-in filters are only 2 stops, not very dark. The main times you would want to use these are when you have too much light even at 1/2000s, either because you don't want to stop down to f/8 (diffraction problems), or because even at f/8 you are still getting overexposure. Or, by the same token, when you are shooting with an external flash (where your max sync speed is 1/250) to avoid the same issues.

[snostorm]

I believe that the reason that the ND filter was added was to make up for the relatively slow max shutter speed of the leaf shutters in the Q system AF lenses, along with the relatively fast f8 min aperture. 2 stops ND used with the leaf shutter at max gives us equivalent exposure latitude allowed by the electronic shutter and most other modern cameras (1/8000), but without the negative of possible rolling shutter effect for very fast moving subjects.

I imagine that creative shooters might be able to find some special purpose uses for it, but as baro-nite has pointed out, 2 stops is not very much to work with.

Scott