Equipment – Lee Filters and normal Polarizers

As an interlude from my New Zealand articles I want to get a little more technical in this post and show you how I use Polarizers and Lee Filters together. I’m using Lee Filters for more than four years now and I also rely on Polarizers in many situations. This consequently means that often I need to put both in front of the lens.

Although there’s a solution from Lee where you put a large Polarizer in front of the Lee Filter Holder (buy US, UK, GER*), I could never really convince myself to invest in this filter, despite advantages such as easy mounting and unmounting when using the Lee Filter Holder.

There are also disadvantages, which are a result of the size of such a Polarizer. It’s quite heavy and it doesn’t feel very save having it in front of the Holder when shooting. A larger piece of glass also means a larger contact surface and you have to be very carefull not to break it. Last but not least it’s quite pricy.

If I were using a Lee Polarizer this would mean, every time I need it, I also need to use the Lee Filter Holder. This is cumbersome, if I don’t use GND or ND filters but only want to shoot with a Polarizer. So right from the beginning I used normal Polarizers together with the Lee Filter Holder instead. For this I first screw the Polarizer on the lens and in front of it a Lee Wide-angle adapter ring (buy US, UK, GER*). I have recorded a little video where I show how to set things up.

As you see in the video this setup also has it’s disadvantages. A better solution is the so called Badpter from 3D Printed Ideas, which I also show in the video.

Mind that you will need a different Badpter for every lens you use. But you would also need a Lee adapter ring for each lens diameter you have. If you, for example, only have 77mm lenses that’s fine and you only need one. But as soon as there is variation, you also need multiple rings. Another big plus of the Badpter for me is that I just leave it on the lens and can still fit the normal lens cap in front of it. It just feels more solid than leaving the Lee adapter on the lens and using the large Lens Cap from Lee, especiall when using a polarizer. I would always unscrew the adapter before putting the camera back into the bag. The Badpter saves me some time here.

Currently I only have a Badpter for my Canon 16-35mm lens and for my Tamron 24-70mm I still have to use the screw on adapter. But as soon as there’s a Badpter for this lens I will get one, because other than with the Canon, the vignetting on the Tamron is much more noticeable when using Polarizer and Lee Filters together.

* These are a Amazon Affiliate Links. If you use them to buy something, I’ll get a little commission from Amazon