Wide angle with filters

[Steven Barall]

I have been using a Rodenstock 90mm GrandagonN f4.5 for several years and I have finally decided to get a few filters. The filter size is 82mm and I want to use round threaded filters. Do I need to use slim filters with this wide angle lens? I will get polarizers and other filters as well.

Any thoughts on whether filters should be multi-coated?

Any thoughts on different filter brands?

Thank you all for your knowledge.

[Brian Ellis]

I used a 90mm Super Angulon for a long time, and today use an 80mm Super Symmar SL, with "normal" glass filters and haven't had a problem with the possible exception of the polarizer on the 80mm. In a recent batch of negatives one showed a lot of vignetting that may have been caused by the polarizer or by the extreme front rise used for the photograph. I'll have to test to see if the polarizer alone causes vignetting. I don't recall a problem with the 90 and a polarizr.

There may be some advantage to multicoated filters but if so I don't know what it is. I've never used them.

IN my experience filters from the major companies are all pretty much the same, the only difference I've observed is in the materials used for the rim. I use Tiffen, B+W, Heliopan, and Hoya filters. I couldn't begin to tell which photographs were made with which brand of filter. I'm sure premium brands like B+W make various claims for the quality of the glass they use or some other justification for the high price and maybe there's some truth to them but I haven't observed any difference in photographs made with B+W filters and those made with Hoya or Tiffen. However, on one of the Hoyas the glass has come loose from the rim and it rattles around. It doesn't affect the image but makes for kind of a shoddy feeling to the filter. Different brand polarizers do give slightly different color casts (obviously not relevant if you're doing black and white). Joe Englander wrote an article about this in the final issue of "Camera and Darkroom" magazine some years back.