You are right, except that these circular filters have a much wider transition from dark to clear than square ones so there is room for some positioning - may not work on a hard horizon but probably ok otherwise.

Cannot agree, I recently used a grad on a seaside shot with low sun where if I had exposed normally would get blown out highlights and loss of the detail I wanted in the sky; alternatively a faster exposure would mean trying to pull out detail from the dark shadows later which can give a bland look. And done right they don't need to be heavily edited. Why give yourself all that work?

If you look at my latest thread re. Premier Ink and Photographic www.premier-Ink.co.uk I mentioned bargains available. They stock a range of Haida circular grad filters now selling around £4.90 - £13.50 and from what limited info is available they are Schott glass and the products are rated highly in reviews. Must be worth a punt at that price!

Called in to this Leamington Spa shop yesterday and was surprised to find all the displays of tripods and bags gone, replaced by the burgeoning wool shop it shares floor space with. Reduced to just a small counter with everything stocked out of sight. It's clear that the larger photo items will no longer be sold but the future of the core business of filters, photo papers and print cartridges is unknown. They normally have a large spread in AP but not in my latest issue so not looking good, very sad as their service is excellent and prices often the best around. Anyhow on their website is their remaining stock of accessories: bags, tripods & heads, filters etc at greatly reduced prices so worth a look online - www.premier-ink.co.uk

Talking of lenses you probably don't need Lomography is launching an oddity called the Neptune convertible lens system in K-mount, consisting of a mount with the mechanics in a single block and three prime glass fronts which they claim is all you need in your bag. With a common diameter you only need one set of filters so very compact, it will be interesting to see how it performs but all manual, no electric connections. Anyhow, back to the subject I live in hope that as with other recent launches the long wait will be justified.

It is now six months since these were announced on the new lens roadmap but has anyone heard anything since?

Now THAT would bring poser superiority to any Canon-infested bird hide! Pity it doesn't come with a trolley to wheel it around with though. Sample photos look stunning. Mmmm, might get a job sneaking that in unnoticed though.

Hi, I tried counting stops but the results were too dark, probably because the camera was set with 1/3 stop steps! Taking some with a 6 stop filter and using a tripod, f16 setting and the 2 sec timer the results were not too sharp, so would it better with live view or mirror lock-up? Or maybe it was just too windy. Sad really because I rejected most of some otherwise nice shots.

Ten stops is not ten seconds, 1/30 becomes 30 secs, 1/60 becomes 15 secs, and so on.

Don't forget to switch to manual focus as well, otherwise the camera will be 'blind' and hunt fruitlessly. There are free phone apps to give a quick shutter speed check like Lee Filters, you don't need their products it gives speeds for 6, 10 and 15 stop filters. Better than relying on fingers!