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I just got a 77mm titanium Tiffen antireflection coated .6 graduated ND filter off ebay. It was about $100 or so as I recall which is good value as these normally are worth closer to $170.
At the moment it is on a Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 ED lens and it doesn't seem to vignette but thats on an APS 40D.
Also I use both a Bower 62mm circular polariser and a 77mm Kenko one.
They both work well and I use them all the time. Better than a UV glass filter as they do some work!
I also got a cheapish 720nm Infrared filter 77mm off ebay. It works quite well and is a lot cheaper than the standard Hoya R72 infrared filter. Although I have only used it a few times so a bit early to recommend it.
The Hoya one was fine (I misplaced it) but a lot more expensive and that was a 62mm or smaller one too.
If you are going to be imaging waterfalls you may consider a .9 ND filter to be able to do a slow enough shutter speed to get the water to blur. Same with your coastal shots. Get that lovely water blur even though you took it during the day.
There was one filter I nearly bought but I'd spent too much already on lenses. That was 2 ND filters that are circular and you spin them around to get the level of gradation you want. It sounded very clever. That was at a Photo shop in Castle Towers in Castle Hill. These filters were about $120 or so. Perhaps you can get them on ebay for a lot less. They sounded very handy. They replace these kits that have several ND filters in them.
Humi would know more on this subject about which ND filters are actually useful. Ken Rockwell for what its worth recommends the .6 and says he rarely uses the .9 or others. I can't confirm that.
I'd like to know more about filters. There was a booklet about Tiffen filters that had lots of different types of filters and when you use them.
I saw a fabulous image of the blue mountains where the sky was very dark blue. I thought maybe it was done using IR filters but they don't create that effect. It must have been done with a heavy graduated ND filter. Similar effects used in CSI Miami - they often show the sky as dark red or almost black as an effect and I wondered how they did that.
Greg.
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