Today my LEE filter set arrived in the mail. 4x4" or larger filter sets are generally the best way to get even exposures when you have highly dynamic contrasting regions in your photo, e.g. sunsets/sunrises, land/bright skies, etc. Using a graduated neutral density filter, the bright regions can be evened out by however many stops you wish. Here is a 2-stop hard-edged GND filter, but they come in 1-3+ stops, and they come in soft-edged (slow transition) and hard-edged (fast transition). I plan on purchasing a soft-edge 2-stop and soft-edge 3-stop when I return from Costa Rica this weekend. However, this hard-edged 2-stop GND should do well for the beach. It is attached to an 82mm adaptor ring on my 16-35mm II f/2.8L. The great thing about the LEE mount is that it is very low profile, so it eliminates most vignetting, whereas Cokin tends to jut out a bit more.
(close)
