Hoya 52mm HMC NDX400 Screw-in Filter

This is a great option when looking into long stop neutral density filter. The variable neutral density filters are great but expensive. A 77mm variable ND filter of decent quality would be something like Tiffen, which is about $150. The other fixed ND filter options are the B&W 3.0 filter which gives you 10 stops and goes for $100ish and ofcourse the Lee Big Stopper which goes for around $200-250 for the kit, but also provides up to 10 stops of light restriction. This Hoya, offer 9 stops which is great and for $70 is a great option. I recently used it at Niagara Falls and was more than happy with the results. Professional grade construction. My only issue, which knocks off 1 star from my rating would be cleaning the damn thing. At Niagara I got some small water droplets on the filter, which did not affect the images at all, but when I got home and attempted to clean it, I noticed that no matter what I tried, that I could not get it looking like it did fresh out the package. I have read reviews on it and apparently this problem is something that a lot of people complain about. The pictures still come out great despite note being 100% clean, but like most of us photographers that like to keep things 100% clean, it sort of annoying. Overall a great item and I would highly recommend it if you want a high stop light reducing ND filter for the price.

The filter is sold by Hoya, but on buying it you would realize its made by Tokina - the makers of market leading wide angle lenses.It's very well built, and does the job its meant to do - cut the light by 9 stops.You will need a tripod or a stable surface to take pictures, as this tends to make the exposures lengthy.I have tried this filter to take pictures of moving clouds as background for landscapes, and this spells magic on the pictures.I had seen many cheap ND filters in market, but when you buy a filter for your expensive lenses, better buy the best ones.The gradation of this filter is very dark, hence one needs to focus the image before putting this on the lens.If you want dreamy pictures of sunset, water falls, fast cars, etc, I would recommend buying 2-3 stops ND filters because those filters can be used handheld and are ideal for fast moving objects.The 9-10 stops filter are special purpose filters, which should be used only on special occasions. Example - Very bright day, Subject - Windmill, Background - farm and fluffy clouds. ND400 is perfect to capture the movement of windmill and the clouds.Its a little difficult to clean if you get fingerprints or some dust on it. Try to blow air and wipe it with microfibre cloth. This prevents scratching its surface.Highly recommend the product for landscape enthusiasts.

I would recommend this filter for any amateur photographers that want to experiment with long day exposures. If you are going to rely on this filter for important shots I would get a better filter. The build feels a little cheap and I wouldn't trust it to last a long time. If the glass gets dirty, for example you get a finger print on it, it is difficult to clean, but this is probably the case for most multi-coated filters. There is a green color cast but it is easily corrected. Just make sure to shoot in RAW. Vignetting is very noticeable. The sides of the images are quite a bit darker. The filter doesn't seem to degrade the sharpness of the image. If you view the images at 100% you may see slight softness but it isn't a problem at all. Another problem that I saw when I researched this filter was a purple color cast on the top half of the image that also significantly reduced contrast. I had this happen on a couple images and I realized it was because the sun was at my back and light was leaking through the viewfinder. If you cover the viewfinder when you take long exposures with the sun at your back you will prevent this problem. If the light leak in the viewfinder is the problem, then it would seem that any neutral density filter you buy would create the same problem. If I lost or broke this filter I don't know if I would buy it again. It does its job and its the cheapest of its kind but it has vignetting and a cheap build. I would probably buy this filter again just because there aren't many other choices and it is much cheaper than anything else.

Purchased this filter to use on my Canon 7D with Sigma 17-50 2.8 lens to use while photographing waterfalls. The pictures came out nice and clear. I was able to take 30 second exposures between f8-11 with ISO at 200 in the middle of a rather overcast day. Image quality was great.I would have given this item 5 stars however, it does not thread onto my sigma lens as well as my other Hoya filters and because of this I accidentally dropped it during 1st use. I began to thread it on and removed my hand to re-position in order to continue tightening it down and to my surprise it had not caught. Fortunately is landed flat on a flat surface and was not scratched and did not shatter (which could be considered proof of its durability). The threading issue may just be a one off but I figured I'd mention it as something to pay attention to.All in all I'd buy another and recommend this filter to others, just be careful putting it on and keep a hand on it until you know it's well and snug.

I use this a lot for darkening my landscape pictures to introduce movement in clouds/water/people. I am predominately a landscape photographer and live by the sea.It is important to note that at the smaller apertures (f/16, f/18, f/22) any marks on this filter become obvious on the image so it should be kept very clean. When stacked with a CPL filter, it is visible at the wider angles (17-24mm, full-frame) but only slightly. If this is the only filter, it cannot be seen. There is no obvious colour cast from this product on my pictures.

This piece of glass definitely belongs in any photographers arsenal.I finally got to flex this specialist piece of glass on a trip to Thailand when shooting waterfalls.The effect they give is just outstanding when used correctly.NOTE: This is technically a 9-stop ND filter according to Hoya's own website. Not a 10-stop as advertised elsewhere.I used an app on my phone to work out the right exposure calculation time based on a reading of the scene before placing the filter on.Then just flick to Manual, dial in the correct amount of time, ISO and aperture and let the lens do its thing!Some of my absolute favourite photos were the long exposures from the waterfall using this lens.

Some cheap 10 stop ND filters give a poor colour rendition, with long exposures having a bluey-green cast. The Hoya big stopper does seem to be genuinely neutral and has delivered some excellent long exposure shots. Other reviewers have mentioned that if it gets wet, once dried it leaves water marks which can't be removed. Since these filters are primarily used near water this is something of a disadvantage, so I ordered up a Hoya Pro clear protector filter to screw onto the front of it. Works a treat and any water spray, salt spray etc. can be removed from the clear filter on the front. If the worst comes to the worst, I can always replace the cheap, clear filter!

In all honesty, I'd really like a Lee Big Stopper but they seem to be permanently out of stock at most places. In any case, they're a lot more expensive than this high quality 8.5 stop ND from Hoya.I always shoot RAW so if there is any colour cast (I haven't properly evaluated this aspect yet), it will be easily correctable in post-processing, making it a non-issue to me.If I want to use it with lenses with filter threads smaller than 77mm, I can always get step-up rings.

I have used an NDX400 for around 5 years and have found it to be good quality and durable, until I dropped my old one on rocks. So, I have bought a replacement and the quality is equally good. Very little colour caste. This is a well used ND filter in my kit.