Filters..are more expensive ones that much better?

[John Ross]

I'm not sure the statement that Tiffen uses "green glass" as some posts and web sites have indicated is true. It seems to me that Tiffen would have been out of business long ago if that were the case.

[Jean-Marie Solichon]

I shoot only colour tranparencies and have been using Hoya (several series), B+W, Heliopan, Cokin, Kaiser and Nikon polarizers. I noticed that Heliopan are, by far, the ones with the slightest colour shift. I'll never use other polarizers anymore for that reason. Regarding Tiffen screwing filters : it's true that quality may not be equal than others' but they market a 81 (not 81A, nor 81B ....) warming filter which no other brand seems to offer. If, like me, you come to dislike the pink (magenta?)cast of usual 81A fliters you may wish to give a look at them. Of course above comments do not apply to B & W or colour negative shooters.

[Bob Salomon]

Want the simple answer?

Buy a Kodak ND gel, a Heliopan Pol, a Hoya Pol, A Tiffen Pol, a B+W Pol.

Put all on a quality 5000K CRI 98+ lightbox and look at the color of the gel and the Polarizers.

Heliopan's will be closest to aa ND gel, B+W will be very close the others will be different colors. They are not as neutral.

Want to prove it?

Put them on that 5000 CRI 98+ illuminator, put daylight slide film in your camera and have a quality lab process the film. Compare the colors for your self.

Don't want to do all that?

Find the Joe Englander article from the last issue of Camera and Darkroom. He did this for you + he read the RGB values of the gel and the filters.

there are big differences in how neutral the polarirzers are.

Then there is optical quality. Kaesmann polarizers from Heliopan and B+W are optically flatter as the gel is under constant tension in all directions and is edge sealed in glass. Regular polarizers are simply laminated between glass and are not edge sealed.

Glass edged filters are immune to damage from fungus in humid areas.

The better filters are brass mounted with knurled mounts (single knurling for B+W and double knurled for Heliopan -result?easier to mount, better grip - especially with gloves.

Heliopan polarizers are rim calibrated so they can be previewed and used on any camera, range finder type, view finder type, LCD finder type, SLR type, ground glass focusing type, under all conditions. It does not have to be mounted on the lens to accurately preview the final effect on film!

So yes some polarizers and filters cost less.

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

"Find the Joe Englander article from the last issue of Camera and Darkroom. He d id this for you + he read the RGB values of the gel and the filters."

Tuan has posted the results of this test, as performed by Joe Englander and publ ished in Camera & Darkroom, at:

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/lf/filters.html

"Heliopan's will be closest to aa ND gel, B+W will be very close the others will be different colors. They are not as neutral."

This is not supported by the data, nor does it match Englander's conclusion that the B+W Warm Tone polarizer is, in fact, the most neutral. Of all the filters tested, Englander's data shows the three Heliopan polarizers to be the LEAST neu tral (and by a very wide margin in the cases of the Heliopan linear and circluar polarizers).

I personally, use the B+W Kaesemann Warmtone +KR1.5 Linear Polarizer and have fo und to to be very neutral in tone and of the highest quality. (Note: B+W offers their Warm Tone Polarizers in varying strengths, for example, a +KR3 will be war mer - redder - than a +KR1.5). I also have a Tiffen linear polarizer and it has a very slight green cast to it (about like adding a CC025 green filter). I act ually use this occasionally to advantage when shooting wet, green foliage (rain forests).

One other thing to consider when buying a filter is the coatings. For example, Tiffen used to offer several of the filters with multicoatings (standard Tiffen filters are uncoated). I happen to have both uncoated and multicoated versions of the Tiffen 812, and it does make a difference when shooting into the sun. I' ve set my camera up shooting into the sun at sunset and tried both versions of t he filter. The difference is obvious even on the ground glass. The uncoated ve rsion is much more flare prone in this instance. I don't use many filters (I ge nerally only carry a polarizer, Tiffen 812, Tiffen 81B, a Signh-Ray graduated ND - occasionally an 81C or B+W KR3 depending on subject and lighting), but I do t ry to get multicoated (or at least single coated) filters when possible.

Kerry