So….. What?.. How does one use it? Just screw it on, point and shoot? – Or do I have to do some heavy mathematics to calculate just how much this, and how little that, I need after waving some light intensity measuring device around for a while?
You just screw it on to the end of the plastic adapter ring that comes with the S5000 (this has a 55mm filter thread at the end) and the camera takes care of the the adjustments to exposure – you use the same neutral density filters that are for 35mm film lenses – they come in various ratings depending on how much light they stop getting through – basically it is just like covering the lens with your sunglasses. The higher the rating the less light they let through – there is a good web page here that explains it all. A mid strength one that reduces the exposure by a couple of stops (see the table on the above link)would be a good starting point. As it is only the intensity of the light that is altered the camera metering system makes all the adjustments so you don’t have to manually calculate and adjust the settings (you do with graduated ND filters – used a lot in landscape photography but these are not what you want).
Does it affect the shutter response time any? Which is pretty sluggish at the best of times. 🙁
Shutter lag can be a problem on the S5000 (please pilots – can you do a very slow pass for S5000 users!) but these filters will have no effect on that for aircraft photos on the bright days that require their use.
I don’t mind setting the speed and leaving the rest to auto, but I don’t want to do much more than that!
This is why these filters are ideal – just set the speed to blurr the props – 1/250 or so and the camera can do the rest – you will have noticed on bright days that if you use this shutter speed the camera gives the over exposure warning as it cannot set an appropriate aperture (the range offered by the S5000 is not as good as that on film or digital slrs) – the ND filter will reduce the amount of light entering the lens and enable the camera to pick a correct exposure with the range of settings it can offer.
One of the advantages I find with the S5000 is the ability to take the screw-in filters of a size that is relatively easy to find as it is often used on 35mm lenses – most camera shops seem to have a good supply of second hand filters for a couple of pounds – it is worth looking for a circular polarising filter also – as well as the specific features of the filter (eg reducing unwanted reflections) they also reduce the amount of light entering the lens (usually by about 2-2.5 stops) and I have used mine on occasions when I’ve left my ND filters at home and needed to obtain a low shutter speed.
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