fter messing around with my seven5 system for a few weeks here are my thoughts. First I'll say that for the last few years I've done all my landscapes with out any grad filters preferring instead to shoot raw and bracket 2-3 shots to cover the dynamic range. I usually find with my 5d2 I can get the full range I need with one shot and only occasionally need to blend in one of the other exposures. I do how ever use a polarizer a lot and also a 3 stop ND filter (usually used with the polarizer so more like 4-5 stops) for slowing down the shutter speed when shooting water. I've been wanting a lee big stopper and holder for a long time but due to how hard they are to find (for the full size one) I've never bought one. Enter the X-E1 and the seven5 system. My first reason for wanting to get the seven5 system was because of not being happy with the Fuji raw files in Lightroom so I was looking to be able to get the shot closer to what I was wanting straight out of the camera. I have a 3stop soft grad , a 2 stop hard grad and the big stopper. At this point I would say for most of my shots the soft grad is not that useful. I think this is due to the lens size versus the length of the transition on the grad. So far the hard grad which actually doesn't look all that hard due to the size of the lens has been much more useful. The only thing I've noticed is it's very easy to get flare with either of these filters. I'm thinking this is partly because of the gap between the lens and the filter. I think I'm going to try wrapping something around that gap so light can't get between the filter and the lens and see if that helps.
I have to say though that I think I prefer my older way of working as opposed to the ND grads mostly because it's not flat where I live (Tennessee) and the majority of my landscape shots are done in hilly or mountainous areas. I do think the grads will be nice next time I'm shooting a beach sunset with a flat horizon. But I don't get to do that very often. For my original intended purpose I'm not so sure. Unfortunately I haven't got to use the big stopper much yet other than just playing around with it but I thing thats what I'm going to use the seven5 for the most. I'm going to get a 3 and 6 stop as well in the future because the big stopper would be to much for some things. It's nice being able to compose the shot and then drop the filter in unlike messing with screw in filters.
The only thing I'm currently trying to figure out is how to best use a polarizer with the seven5. My current polarizer is 77mm so it's to big to put in front of the lee holder. I'm leaning toward getting a 62 or 67mm polarizer and step up rings so I can use it with the various fuji lens I'm planning on purchasing and just mounting the seven5 to that when I need a ND filter. I will say as for as build quality goes I'm very happy with the lee system. It's hard to keep these filters clean though:)