The Lee SW150 Mk2 Filter Holder

PURE SEX – and I’ve bloody well paid for this! My new SW150 MkII filter system for the Nikon 14-24. Just look at those flashy red anodised parts – bound to make me a better photographer!

I’ve just finished part 1 of my video review of the Lee SW150 Filter holder system for super-wide lenses and uploaded it to my YouTube channel:

First off – please forgive the shirt folks!

The SW150 Mk 2 filter holder is designed to fit a list of different lenses:

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED
Nikon 14mm f2.8 D AF ED
Canon EF 14mm f2.8 L II USM
Samyang 14mm f/2.8 ED AS IF UMC
Sigma 12-24mm f4.5-5.6 DG HSM II
Tokina AT-X 16-28mm f/2.8 PRO FX

and according to the Lee website, additional lenses will be catered for; as the need arises I presume.

I never subscribed to the original incarnation of the SW150, for two reasons:

It ‘leaked light’ at the rear surface of the filter (though that was fairly easy to correct with a home-made baffle mod).

But that was of no consequence to me because Lee always gave the impression that:

They would not produce the Big & Little Stopper filters in 150mm square format.

So I’ve always stuck with either the 100mm Lee system or used a B&W 77mm screw-in filter on the Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 or a wide angle prime; and I’ve shot many a well-selling image.

nik14-24_24-70

But, the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 lens has more than one advantage over its sister lens:

It’s sharper – by a country mile.
It resolves more ‘line pairs per millimetre’ than the 24-70mm.
Its focal length range is more ‘in keeping’ with landscape photography.

And, like all the other lenses in that list above, that vast front element collects SO MANY MORE photons during the exposure.

So, now that I’ve got the opportunity to use the advantages of the 14-24 f2.8 from behind high quality 10x and 6x ND filters – well, let’s say the purchase of the Lee SW150 Mk2 system is a bit of a ‘no-brainer’ really.

The main improvement to the holder itself is the inclusion of a new baffle or ‘lightshield’ as Lee call it – this can be purchased separately as an upgrade to the original Lee SW150 Mk 1.

But you’ll have to do without the sexy red anodised bits that come with the new Mk 2 version if you go that route – these have just got to make me a better photographer!

Part 2 of the video review is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0AkHV8RsDw&t=3s

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Quite often when shooting landscapes, or more commonly seascapes, you may run into a problem with parallel horizontals and distortion between far and near horizontal features such as in the image below.

Parallel horizontals that are not parallel – but should be!

This sort of error cannot be fully corrected in Lightroom alone; we have to send the image to Photoshop in order to make the corrections in the most efficient manner.

Here’s a video lesson on how to effectively do just that, using the simplest, easiest and quickest of methods:

You can watch the video at full size HERE – make sure you click the HD icon.

This is something which commonly happens when photographing water with a regular shaped man-made structure in the foreground and a foreshortened horizon line such as the receding opposite shore in this shot. But with a little logical thought these problems with parallel horizontals being “out of kilter” can be easily cured.

Become a patron from as little as $1 per month, and help me produce more free content.

Patrons gain access to a variety of FREE rewards, discounts and bonuses.