ND filter shopping advice?

[AgX]

As pointed out before polarizers depend on the angle of the light source and are nonlinear in the filtering. They should be considered separately and not confused with neutral density filters. DIY filters will not be calibrated and would be more useful if one if metering through the lens.

As I pointed out days ago the OP did not specify at all what effect he is after, but that he is after fooling around and even after DIY solutions.
Thus the repeated advices to start with what is available at every rummage box, polarizers.

 

[Pieter12]

As I pointed out days ago the OP did not specify at all what effect he is after, but that he is after fooling around and even after DIY solutions.
Thus the repeated advices to start with what is available at every rummage box, polarizers.

The only purpose of an ND filter is to reduce the amount of light hitting the film, usually to allow the use of very small apertures for increased depth of field or more usually to use long exposures to blur action sometimes to the point of eliminating it altogether. One might use one if there is high-speed film loaded in the camera and a lot of light. If one just wants to fool around, ND gels are cheap and readily available. You're not going to get the best image quality from them unless you are very careful, but you could easily tape one or stack a few in front of the lens to fool around and get a taste of what can be achieved.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

The only purpose of an ND filter is to reduce the amount of light hitting the film, usually to allow the use of very small apertures for increased depth of field or more usually to use long exposures to blur action sometimes to the point of eliminating it altogether. One might use one if there is high-speed film loaded in the camera and a lot of light. If one just wants to fool around, ND gels are cheap and readily available. You're not going to get the best image quality from them unless you are very careful, but you could easily tape one or stack a few in front of the lens to fool around and get a taste of what can be achieved.

It's the opposite. Less light due to the ND filter requires a larger aperture which gives less depth of field. You might use less depth of field for portrait work to blur the background.

 

[Pieter12]

My bad. I should engage the mind before typing. But using ND gels to get a feeling for fooling aound still goes.

 

[eli griggs]

The OP should chose a ND filter for his kit, and 'fool around' to his heart's content, using it and shooting without it until HE finds out for himself by shooting a lot of film, preferably B&W, and including pre-flashing ND filtered films on location, so he can get an idea of what it can do for his own work, before moving on to other filters, stronger or weaker NDs included AND, colour films, which can shine with sharp, clean colours, when used to good advantage.

The final method is going to be his, unless he's doing testing based on other's work, and the sooner he owns the tool, the sooner he can set aside any confusion.

IMO.