Review on Tiffen 77VND 77mm Variable Neutral Density Filter: Perfect for Camera Lenses, Black by Brandon Woods

Overview I have this ND filter to control the shutter speed when shooting music videos and other videos, but it is not suitable for both. Of course, it controls shutter speed as it should, but read on if you don't want to make the same mistake I did. It seems to be of high quality, it's very easy to get the exposure you need for a given shutter angle and it matches the lenses perfectly. I have Tiffen fixed ND filters and they are great. POOR 1 - Tint: This filter adds a serious green/blue tint to all your footage. This is easy to fix in photography but almost impossible in video. The color cast is very difficult to see, so I filmed the entire clip and didn't notice it until I started color grading the footage. As soon as I applied my Rec709 LUT the colors went wrong. I ended up missing the rec709 correction completely and had to create my own color correction by hand. 2-Vignette: I've attached an image showing the uneven vignette this filter causes. In the top left corner it starts to affect the image when set to less than 60%. This was a long time before the X pattern appeared, and again it was too faint for me to see on the monitor when filming. 3-Hard Stops: I accidentally tripped over the filter a few times and it was very easy. expose if I didn't make sure to dial it back before shooting. Hard stops can fix this, especially when you need to switch gear or match ND filter performance between multiple cameras. CONCLUSION I regret buying this filter and am now looking for a better one on the market. I can use fixed ND filters, but the exposure setting is so convenient, not to mention every second spent fiddling with the gear is wasted recording time. Maybe I only had problems with one, but I can't risk shooting another video with a filter that has so many problems. I'd rather just use shutter speed to control exposure than use a cast or vignette in the footage.