Last Friday I received my Lee Big Stopper 10 stop nd filter from Adorama. My youngest had been asking me all day to go to the lake to go swimming, so I decided it was time to give in. Here was a chance to play around with my new gear. I hadn’t been sure if the filter was going to fit since I use the Cokin Z Pro filter holder and I wasn’t looking forward to holding the filter against the lens for an extended period of time. I had checked that the filter would fit the thickness but I had also noticed that the pins on the holder didn’t allow the filter to move down far enough to make a good seal shut out all the light. We arrived at Lake Bemidji State Park at about 7pm on a bright, mostly sunny day. As my youngest ran to the beach to go swim and my oldest left to go for a walk, I grabbed my camera, tripod, filter holder and a remote, wireless shutter that I had also just purchased, an Aputure Pro Coworkder Wireless Remote, and headed down to the beach.
After about an hour of playing around with settings, and a couple of different set ups testing long exposures on the water, we headed back home. The boys had fun, I had fun, and now I want to get back out and shoot some more long exposures.
My first impression… I love this filter. Second impression… it didn’t work very well with the Cokin filter holder. So my options were to either figure out a way to make the filter sit in the holder better, or go with the Lee filter holder. The filter, as of the time of this writing, was $140. Purchasing the Lee holder and the lens adapters would run me another $250 or so. A little steep for this stage. So after looking around on the internet, I modified my Cokin holder by turning the pins around in their slots, then filing off the remaining edges that were still sticking out. Now I really do have to get back out and shoot some more!