Cokin filters

[Carlos Martínez]

Hi,

 

 

I have been looking for the right Forum to put this in, and I think this might be the place.

 

I am buying a Sony Z1 camera, and as usual when I shoot video I want to to shoot "film style", coming from film as I do.

 

Before film people start crying out about how better is shooting in film (which I agree on), in my country (Brazil) it's far far far more expensive doing so. Both in raw material and rentals.

 

As one project I am starting will take me a long time, shooting in HDV might be a good compromise between low budget and good quality. And image control is what I want to talk about.

 

The question is the filter kit I want to buy for this combo. I was considering using several Cokin products on the Z1.

 

To start with they have a bellows, which might be an affordable and effective way to fight reflections... also reminding me of my Arri 2C years.

 

Cokin also manufactures an extensive filter list, being their graduated NDs the ones I am more interested in.

 

Has anyone here used them? In a range up to 10, grade 5 being "fair", how would you consider the Cokin filters?

[Stuart Brereton]

I had some cokin ND grads which I used for a long time before I bought some more expensive glass filters. They were fine for the work I was doing, which was mostly on DigiBeta or DVcam.

 

They scratch easily, and there is no particular relationship between the strengths that I could determine (perhaps that has changed) but for the money (£12 each) you can't go wrong. They do come in odd sizes though, so if you have a W/A adaptor they might not cover the frame. Best to check.

 

For an HDV shoot, they should be fine, and cheap enough that you could carry a good selection.

[Rory Hanrahan]

I agree w/ Stuart. Cokin's quality doesn't hold up to glass filters (not sure if they're plastic or some type of resin), but they're fine for doing work with video and, at that price, if one gets scratched or distorted you can easily replace it. Another benefit is that you will come to discover what filters you like using to achieve the look your going for at a very modest cost, which you'll easily be able to match w/ glass if you decide to move to a higher quality format later.

 

Its funny, just last week a DP and I were lamenting Cokins not being more available in many camera + gear shops in the US. We had a set to be used as backups on an HVX feature, but they didn't really get a lot of play since we had a pretty full set of Tiffen 4x4's on hand as well.

[Luke Prendergast]

And there are fantastic filters in the Cokin range like the 'rainbow' which you can't get in Tiffen or Schneider.

 

[Carlos Martínez]

Thanks for all the comments.

 

I am also thinking very much in the way you suggest. Consider the filters as "throw-away" types and see how they behave.

 

The other question is the Cokin bellows, that I was considering getting one, but apparently it has one problem that to rotate a filter you will also rotate the bellows. That is a problem, as you imagine.

 

The next is price, as the front diameter for the Century wide-angle I intend to buy is 92mm, which would not allow me using the one I wanted. The larger one is about the same price as the Geardear matte-box I was interested in.

 

So that would be a follow-up to my original question: has anyone used the Geardear matte-box?

 

This is the one I am talking about:

 

http://www.geardear.com/