What is your favorite filter brand?

[Peter De Smidt]

Bob,

Hasn't Hoya been offering filters based on the new polarizing film for awhile?

http://www.hoyafilter.com/products/hoya/HD-01.html

[Bob Salomon]

Bob,

Hasn't Hoya been offering filters based on the new polarizing film for awhile?

http://www.hoyafilter.com/products/hoya/HD-01.html

Not with this coating and a brass mount.

[Eric Woodbury]

What are the cheap ones called?

Actually, I use gels and polyesters to keep the weight down, speed up the process, reduce volume, reduce optical problems with wide angles. If I had to buy and carry a stack of 95mm glass filters, that would be impossible.

[Preston]

When I use a filter I use B&W-Pro screw-in filters, and Singh-Ray ND Grads with a Cokin-P. Both are high quality, but they sure aren't inexspensive.

--P

[Uri A]

I was in a camera store once trying to decide between all the brands, and a very wise and knowledgeable salesman reminded me of the high-school science maxim that when light hits a surface, it will be either (1) reflected, (2) refracted, or (3) transmitted. Forgetting about refraction for now (as this is the least likely/relevant of the 3 factors when talking about glass), it stands to reason that the filter with the least surface reflection transmits the most light.

He opened a few brands of UV filters for me and we compared the relative amounts of reflection playing on the surface. I don't remember all the brands, but since that day, based on that experiment, I buy the Hoya-Pro series for all my lenses. Perhaps the B+W was better, not sure, but it wasn't worth 3x the price of the Hoya. I remember Tiffen was the worst by a long shot...

This was over 10 years ago, so maybe the experiment is worth repeating with the current coatings out there.

This is my favourite kind of photo tip - scientifically sound and not based on branding/emotion, but easy for a simpleton like me to understand

[rdenney]

...when light hits a surface, it will be either (1) reflected, (2) refracted, or (3) transmitted.

It can also be absorbed or scattered. Not all glass is as clear as all other glass. You can put low-reflective coatings on window glass, but still affect the color balance and cause veiling flare. That's one reason the high-end filters are high-end--they use the same optical glass used in high-end lenses.

(I found multicoated 105mm polarizers on ebay for $35. I somehow don't think they'll do as well as even that uncoated B+W that costs five times that--and still have what a Heliopan costs.)

Rick "whose plastic eyeglass lenses have coating with very low reflectivity" Denney

[Brian C. Miller]

I bought B+W for infrared, also a Hoya, and otherwise my filters are Tiffen. I'm planning on buying some Lee, Singh-Ray, and Cokin.

Round filters with brass rings are nice. Of course, when I use my expensive filters I am oh-so-careful. One time I lost a pouch of six Tiffen filters. I was kind of put out over it, but Tiffen filters are cheap. If I lost my B+W filters, I would be just devastated.

I print optically, so of course I use appropriate filters. The only time I don't use filters is when I use my Holga. Yes, I keep a filter on the lens for protection. I don't cart all of my filters around with me all the time. Usually just a few suffice.

[Professional]

I have B+W, one Hoya ND and broken[gone] Hoya soft filter, and Singh-Ray and LEE and HiTech filters, i use them all, but now i will get rid of that Hoya ND, and i have one additional B+W cir polarizer that i really need to get rid of it, i have also Marumi cir pol that i don't want at all, also i have LEE GND filters for P-series, i used all of them and i got nice results, but now i am trying to keep only the highest quality and replace what i don't want, i see color cast[magenta] using my Hitech GND with either Hoya ND[round] or LEE 4x4 ND, so maybe i should buy LEE GND instead or try to use my Singh-Ray Reverse-GND and see if it will solve the problem.

[Professional]

I forget that i also Hoya IR filter [72 i think], and i love my B+W 1000 ND, but i am thinking to replace it with LEE big stopper, so if i will buy that big stopper i will sell my B+W 1000x ND filter.

[Hector.Navarro]

I use Tiffen (POL, yellow #8 & red #25), works fine and I can't pay more.