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What I found was this Cokin system. This system was developed by the French professional photographer Jean Coquin. He developed a system that has as he says "simplicity, rapidity of use and versatile enough to leave plenty of room for individual inspiration and creativity".
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Advantages: Simplicity and ease of use. Disadvantages: Costs can rapidly mount up.
...What I found was this Cokin system. This system was developed by the French professional photographer Jean Coquin. He developed a system that has as he says "simplicity, rapidity of use and versatile enough to leave plenty of room for individual inspiration and creativity".
First you have a screw in adaptor that fits the front of the lens. This varies with the size of your lens. Onto this adaptor fits the filter ... ...into which the filter slots. There are two slots in the front of the holder.
You will notice at once that you can put in and take out a filter very quickly as you are not screwing in the filter, though care to avoid finger marks must be taken.
The filter holder is able to freely rotate about the lens ring so that you can vary the effects. The "X-Pro" system has two brass screws on the filter holder that can ... more
I have noticed that on some of my digital photographs of landscapes that I have had to turn up the brightness to see what is in the foreground. This has resulted in a loss of colour and definition in any sky featured, giving the impression that the picture is overexposed there and underexposed on the ground. I find that it can be a problem with some digital cameras due to the way that the light sensor works.
I have used the screw in circular Polarizer and U.V. Skylight filters with out success. So I wanted something different.
What I found was this Cokin system. This system was developed by the French professional photographer Jean Coquin. He developed a system that has as he says "simplicity, rapidity of use and versatile enough to leave plenty of room for individual inspiration and creativity".
First you have a screw in adaptor that fits the front of the lens. This varies with the size of your lens. Onto this adaptor fits the filter holder itself. This is made of a hard dark plastic into which the filter slots. There are two slots in the front of the holder.
You will notice at once that you can put in and take out a filter very quickly as you are not screwing in the filter, though care to avoid finger marks must be taken.
The filter holder is able to freely rotate about the lens ring so that you can vary the effects. The "X-Pro" system has two brass screws on the filter holder that can be tightened to hold the holder in one position against the mounting ring.
The system has four main types:
"A" system; for lenses from 36mm-62mm with a focal length greater than 35mm. "P" system; from 48mm-82mm with focal length greater than 28mm. "Z-Pro" system: from 49mm-96mm and focal length greater than 20mm. "X-Pro" system; from 62mm-112mm with focal length greater than 14mm. There are also some rings for specialist type cameras such as Rollei and Hasselblad. There are also some that will attach with a magnetic ring for digital cameras. Here I am quoting their literature.
The filters come in 8 different types. 1: coloured. 2: diffraction stars. 3: Centre-spots. 4: Pastels-diffusers. 5: Optical Effects. 6: Graduated. 7: Polarizers. 9: Special Effects. The complete range has 160 different filters.
The filters for the "P" system are contained in a plastic box and are themselves made of organic glass (maker's booklet) as are all the filters rather than an optical glass with a coating. The box for the filter is (HxWxD) 110mm x 95mm x 10mm and the filter itself is 82mm x 82mm.
The X-Pro comes in its own soft leather wallet as they are much larger.170mm x 130mm. These are sold in a larger cardboard box.
I cannot give the sizes of either the "A" or "Z-Pro" as I do not have any.
It would appear that the "A" and "P" series cover the vast majority of the popular sizes. The "X" and "Z-Pro" systems are for the larger format systems. Not every type of filter is available for each system. Having bought some filters in one system, say "P" and you then get a different lens, all that may be required is a new mounting ring rather than a complete new set of filters at a great saving in money.
Price:
This appears to vary depending where to do your shopping. For a "P" series ring and holder I paid £5 and £8 respectively from a Photoshop. Since then I have found a variety of prices. A filter can cost between £9-£15 depending again where you shop.
The "X-Pro" ring and holder cost £25 and £32 respectively and the filters themselves were £39.
You can see that costs can mount up quickly when you have a large lens and you want several filters. As an indication a 121M filter can cost: "A" £10.95 "P" £13.95 "X" £49.95 "Z" £34.95
As an example I took the following 4 shots from the same place with my Canon EOS 300 digital camera using the "P" series of graduated filters numbered 121L, 121M and 121S fitted to the 18-55mm lens. All stops, film and shutter speed settings remain the same.
Fig 1 used no filter at all. Fig 2 used P121L filter Fig 3 used P121M filter Fig 4 used P121S filter There are variations you will note but I have not lost the definition in the clouds that can sometimes be lost when you have to turn up the brightness in a picture to see the foreground.The distinctions may not be all that clear on these reduced photos, but it is noticable on the full size 3072x2048 that I normally use
Think about what you want to do and have fun with your camera.
Advantages: Fantastic Control over composition Disadvantages: Easy to get carried away
I have been using the cokin P-series filters for a while now. For anyone who doesn't know what they are, let me explain.
Cokin filters are square or rectangular sheets of plastic and sometimes glass, with various colours, gradients or other effects on them. You mount the filters into a holder, which can hold up to three filters (or one if using a wide angle version) and a polarising filter. The filter holder is then mounted to your lens using whats ... ...that you can now buy Cokin compatible filters and holders made by people like Kood. These are of the same quality but much cheaper. The possibilities are endless in terms of creative photography, especially for those who like to get the shot right first time, rather than forging a shot in photoshop. Just look at www.cokin.co.uk to get an idea of the possibilities.
I personally own a polarising filter, selection of neutral density and neutral density ...
benzas 12.11.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Cokin Filter System
Advantages: Very easy to use, looks pretty good as well. Disadvantages: You'll end up buying alot, costs add up.
...soon as I tried the Cokin system, I knew i'd never go back. All you do is screw the adaptor ring onto the end of your camera - using the normal threading rings - then slide the holder over the top and clip it into place. Your done! Now all you have to do to change the filter, is slide one out, and slide another in. The results you can acheive with this system is outstanding. I never thought a graduated filter would make so much difference, but it ...
jackmcintyre 02.08.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Cokin Filter System
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I'm a non-believer with digital camera before I got this camera. When my daughter was born last year, I vow to take pictures of her every single day. Which I did follow though to my promise, except it was too much for me to drop off the film and wait for it to come back. I did some research online and decide to find a camera that works more like a 35mm slr like I'm used shooting with in my studio. Finally I brought this camera and 2 64mb memorie sticks and a extra battery. After I start shooting with it, I thought I'll never use another 35mm film camera again. It was so easy to use, very similar to the newer style of film based camera. It can be complete manually or automatic. Since it has a 62mm filter ring, it was easy to fit various filters or cokinsystem on there to have color correction or other special effects. I've used ...
