Photoblog

Gueirua beach, Santa Marina shot with Nikon D800, Nikkor 14-24 F2.8 lens, Haida filter system with Haida ND 3.0 and Haida GND 0.6 soft Some time ago I was reviewing the Haida system for my Nikon 14-24 lens. A wonderful lens, but so heavy and bulky that is uncomfortable to carry it around in the bag for a whole day, therefore I leave it at home more frequent than not during my shooting trips. For this trip in Spain, I decided that my shoulders need to roughen up and Carmen needs a wider lens than her 20mm prime, therefore I was using the 14-24mm quite intensively; as a result Haida system came into play a lot. This time in real shooting conditions: sunrises, sunsets, close by the water, in growing tides and rough waves. San Juan de Gaztelugatze, Bakio  shot with Nikon D800, Nikkor 14-24 F2.8 lens, Haida filter system with Haida ND 3.0 and Haida GND 0.6 soft So how my conclusions evolved ? First of all using this kind of filter system is...

Saint-Malo, the “cité corsaire” was the first destination of our Brittany photo trip. The historic walled port city welcomed us with rain showers that stopped only seldom during the hours we spent there. The city is quite picturesque with nice promenade on the walls ; the very photogenic Fort National, a stronghold built in 1689,  is accessible only during low tide. Founded by Gauls in the 1st century B.C, the city has a prominent military history:  it was the home of a roman militia protecting the the Rance river estuary, during the time when Saint-Malo was a roman settlement called Reginca or Alletum between 1590 and 1593 it proclaimed its independence, using the motto “not French, not Breton, but Malouin”, by the breton name of Sant-Maloù it became the home of the corsairs and sometimes pirates. They forced English ships passing through the channel to pay tribute during World War II it was almost entirely destroye...

Since quite some time, even before buying my Nikon 14-24  (the famous ultra wide lens),  I was looking into a filter system for this lens. There are few options in the market with their pros and cons and very contradicting reviews. Some people say one is perfect while the other say it really sucks. So its very difficult to make a proper decision without giving a try to a system or another, and given the price that is usually quite steep, any decision would involve substantial risk taking. For the “normal” lenses I am using a Lee system with lee and Hitech filters and I am extremely happy with their quality. But the 150mm Lee system, on top of being hugely expensive also had some major light leakage problems: there is some small space between filter and the holder that is not properly cover and allows light leaking in and reflecting on to the sensor. While doing my research on this topic I stumbled into a new player in the market, the Chinese producer Haida. I co...