For the past few years my grad-ND (graduated neutral density) filter set included P-size filters from both Singh-Ray and Hitech placed in a inexpensive Cokin P-sized wide angle filter holder . P-sized filters are 84mm wide and from 84 – 120mm tall. This had worked out reasonably well for me and my holder has allowed me to use my filters with my Nikon 12-24 lens without any vignetting problems but the holder does limit use to only one filter at the wide end. So if I wanted to use a combination of a regular ND or circular polarizer along with a grad-ND at 12mm the combination including the holder led to vignetting so handholding the grad-ND in front of the ND/CPL was necessary. However, in 2008 I found myself doing more and more handholding with my grad’s and although you can certainly handhold a P-size filter their size is less than ideal for this method. So I decided to make the move to the larger, Z-sized filters and could not be happier. Z-sized filters are wider, 100mm, and taller, 125 – 150mm depending on the brand. The main players for this size are Lee and Singh-Ray, both 150mm tall, and Hitech, which are 125mm tall. I chose to go with a set Hitechs for several reasons. First, my experience with my other Hitechs was very good. Second, I strongly prefer the transition of their 3-stop soft to the Singh-Ray because SR’s transition is too gradual for my taste and useless for transitioning to the 3-stop region with long focal lengths. And three, the price is right, $63 instead of $160. The lower price made these more affordable to make the switch to a complete set and in the event I drop or scratch any of my grad-ND’s I will not go too crazy at the replacement cost. Is the shorter 125mm height of the Hitechs okay? Absolutely!!! Are their practical advantages to using these larger grads? Yes, and those advantages include the following... It is quicker and easier to try out a filter for a composition. I just reach into my filter pouch, which is attached to my belt for easy access, and hold it over the lens. If one filter is not appropriate then I can quickly switch to a different one. I find that I am using my filters much more since handholding makes it is much easier. When handholding a hard edge grad-ND, where the placement of the transition zone can be critical, I can soften the transition by simply jiggling the filter up and down as I press the shutter. Some call this method feathering. Whatever you want to call it, it works, and works very well giving me more ‘wiggle room’ to use my hard edge filters without concern of the transition edge being obvious in the composition. Icy Cold Stream, White Mountains Larger hard edge grad-ND’s can double as regular ND which is huge benefit that cannot be underestimated. For example, if you shoot streams or anything else and want to also use a CPL filter to selective remove glare and also need slower shutter speeds you can simply compose, adjust the polarizer, focus with the AF button, then hand hold the appropriate strength hard grad over the CPL and hit the shutter. Also, I may be using my screw-on 3-stop ND filter but want to shoot variations at longer shutter speeds. So I can shoot with the 3-stop ND, then easily hold my 1, 2, and/or 3 stop hard-grad over that filter and try the look of different combinations of density/shutter speed. For almost $400 you can do the same thing with Singh-Ray vari-ND or their vari-N-Duo filter but these are expensive and tricky to use since metering does not work well this this design so you must take a few test shots and adjust the exposure based on the histogram. When not hand holding my filters I use the Cokin Z holder which has a much sturdier build than Cokin’s P-holders. Since the holder is wider I can easily stack 2-3 filters, even at the wide end, without worry of vignetting. The Z-size holder can be mounted on existing threaded screw-in filters like ‘normal’ sized CPL or ND’s at the wide-end without vignetting. The exception is 12-13mm on my Nikon 12-24, and 17mm on my 17-55. However, if I handhold these grads over a normal-size screw-in filter there is no vignetting at all. Grazing Deer in Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains I find that I am using my grad-ND’s much more now since I switched to the larger size. Compositions with a bright sky that did not blow out the histogram rarely had me going through the trouble of pulling out my filters and holder to make the sky even better. Instead I would make a few adjustments to the sky in the digital darkroom. Now, I find myself pulling out the filters much more and getting useful detail and color in the sky during capture. I even invested in a 1-stop hard grad that I find myself using much more than I thought I would to get better skies --- see example image from Cades Cove. I have zero regrets moving up to these larger filters and by selecting Hitech as my brand I feel I did not sacrifice quality for the price. Currently my grad-ND set includes five filters, 2 and 3 stop soft, and 1, 2 and 3 stop hard.