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I am an amateur photographer and I tested a ND 2-400 variable filter-at its maximum 8 2/3 stops-for a low light landscape scenery.My Nikon d610 suggested data were aperture 4.0 ,shutter speed 0.4s,iso 100 without the filter and the exposure calculator app on my mobile gave me a time of shooting of 205 s.However photo was black and remained black even when I exceeded the time of shooting up to 5 minutes and more. Something went wrong and I need some advice on this.

Zografos Vekiaris
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  • Did you stop at the max mark on the filter? On most filters you can turn it past that mark, which makes it even more dark, but also introduces a harsh x-shaped vignette. However, it then also might be darker than what you think it is. – Kai Mattern Oct 16 '20 at 07:48

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A variable ND is essentially two linear polarizers in series. And if two linear polarizers are oriented 90* to each other they will block all light. I suspect you have over rotated the filter as Kai mentioned, or perhaps it is mis-marked.

Steven Kersting
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