Calling all photographers! Cokin or Lee?

[MarkW]

Morning all!

I'm thinking of having a little foray into IR photography with my DSLR, which means buying a filter and a mounting kit. Once I've taken the plunge I'll probably also invest in some grads and long exposure filters over the next few months. I'm looking at the Cokin and Lee systems, and they both seem to have their pros and cons.

The Lee kit is expensive, but the filter carrier looks better made than the Cokin. The only information I found on using IR filters with my camera (Canon 5D mk III) came down firmly in favour of the Cokin Z007. I'm guessing all the 100 x 100 mm filters are interchangeable with either carrier, but any other advice or suggestions would be much appreciated. I'm a bit out of touch with this: the last filter I used was a cheesy starburst on an OM20 in about 1989!

[iiisecondcreep]

I can't help, but you've just reminded me I have an IR filter (Hoya R72 screw on filter) that hasn't seen the (IR ho ho!) light of day in ages!

Have fun whatever you decide, and please do post some pics once you've got it

[MarkW]

I've just placed an order for the Cokin Z-Pro kit after some great advice from a couple of photographers on a musicians forum. Should be perfect for my needs, and if by any miracle I manage to take any decent snaps I'll post a couple here.

[iiisecondcreep]

Nice one, look forward to seeing the shots

[iiisecondcreep]

Has it arrived yet?! Any pics to share?

I dusted mine off and took it out today, not getting the best results... photoshop throwing a hissy at the raw files... used a custom white balance on the camera as I've always done (new camera so different type of raw since last time i used it, maybe thats why?) but when I open the raw files in ps they are still red! Making post processing a little harder. I will try using auto wb next time and adjusting the wb on the raw file.

Happy ish with this one, the trees are in blossom. Can't seem to get the grass/leaves that bright white. Hopefully not using custom wb on the camera will sort that :/

In The Park by Gayle E. Anderson, on Flickr

[MarkW]

I like that - very nice!

The filter arrived a couple of days ago, but I haven't had chance to get out with it yet - hopefully next week if the weather improves.

I did manage a midnight session at Brimham Rocks on Thursday though, where I spent a couple of hours in the pitch dark light-painting the rocks with a torch and some coloured strobes. This is one of my unedited efforts, just converted from RAW to JPEG in Lightroom. It was the first time I've done this kind of stuff, and with a bit more experimentation I reckon it could produce some cool results.

I'll post some IR images as soon as I have some!