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I received my prize from the Sep Competition yesterday - a new lee filter set, a 0.6 hard grad and a warm up glass filter - 81A I think?!
Anyway I have assembled it and wondering what new filters to add - by jove they are pricey - went onto eBay and someone is selling a hard grad set and saying hard recommended for small format and soft recommended for large format - say what?!
Also went onto the Warehouse Express site and it looks like I can get a polyester grad set for much less that the glass grads - hence welcome comments on the comparison of resin, glass and polysester as I think a few pro's here use them.
Also any thoughts on the bellows you can get - one problem I have had previously with filters is glare due to filters picking up bright light sources. PS I use a Canon 10D with 20, 24 primes - have the wide angle adaptors to fit these.
Cheers
Martin
Soft for large format, new one on me but without com test l would not like to say otherwise. Anyway, 0.3 grad might be useful, never used the 0.9 much, also a UV and Pol(glass) and a strong box, like you say they cost real money, the glass ones anyway. Hope it helps.
I think the 'soft for large format' line comes from the Lee manual as a soft grad is harder to use on a small camera where a smaller viewfinder makes it harder to see where the gradation starts. Obviously this doesn't preclude the use of hard grads on large format. Joe Cornish does this a lot and he should know 
Ihave a set of 3 soft resin ND grads (0.3,06 & 0.9) and they work excellently. If you think they are expensive - look up the price of the circular polariser. Personally I have never found much use for hard grads.
P.S. I still find it amusing that Lee sell a square circular polariser - a recipe for confuion
Hi Martin
Well done on winning the filters.
The Hard or Soft grad filters are not format specific. In practice, it is hard to place the Soft grads accurately with 35mm viewfinders simply because the transition is so smooth and subtle.
I use both and find the soft is excellent for water shots where it darkens gradually down towards the foreground. This darkening is often too much for the dynamic range of film and the soft ND translates it well into film terms. The Hard grads are used most frequently, often at an angle and don't be afraid to invert if needed!
If you are considering the ND grad set (effectively a 3 for the price of 2 offer) and already own a 0.6 Hard, then I suggest buying from Lee, explaining your situation and asking them to substitute the 0.6 that comes in that set for one of your choice. I would suggest either a 0.45 Hard, or 0.6 or 0.9 soft depending upon your preferences. The idea of the 0.45 is that it gives you a half stop option which can be coupled with others to precisely get the effect you are after. In fact it is one I use most often, since I like my skies to be about 1/2 stop brighter than the land/sea. I know the world is not often seen that way on EPZ where the skies are normally far darker......
With regard the polariser, go for the front ring and a 105mm round one. It doesn't have to be by Lee. This way you can use ND grads and Pola together. FWIW I don't use the pola nearly as much as the grads.
Stronger warm ups such as an 81D or 81B are useful and then there is the 81B warm-up grad which you invert to leave the sky cooler.....
I haven't got the bellows lens shade (yet!), I flag my lenses with a darkslide when making the exposure, but this bit of kit does it more effectively from all angles and you can see beforehand if it is getting into the image.
I too was daunted by start-up cost, but haven't bought any for the last 3 years, nor felt the need to do so.
Baxter
I use the hard grads and find you can easily position these. I have looked at the soft grades but you can hardly tell where the transition is.
I have the standard bellows and on wide angle shots i position the bellows so they are out of the view finder if i still have flare then i just use something additional to shade the front of the lens (hat or pop up reflector works well).
as well as looking at ordering just what they have in the book you can get filter made to order on I was looking at getting made up is a 0.6 grad at the top and 81B on the bottom with hard transition between the two that way you can darken the skies and warm up the land (saves buying 2 separate filters)I think it cost a bit more than a standard grad but it was cheaper than 2 separate filter
Phil
PS Lee filters are just down the road from where I live in Andover. In the past I have suggested to try an arrange a visit to the factory maybe there might be more interest especially if i could get a discount on all orders that day
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