PDA

View Full Version : polyester filters



Gray Mitchell
13-Jun-2005, 16:16
I am looking into buying some filters for B&W. I have seen that polyester filters are much cheaper than gelatin, resin, and glass. Do these polyester filters lack in optical quality? Are they ok to use for shooting 4x5? what are my other choices without getting too expensive? any suggestions on where to buy? thanks alot

David A. Goldfarb
13-Jun-2005, 16:29
I've been using the Lee 4" polyester filters for a while for some big lenses, and they seem pretty good. They aren't quite as delicate as gel filters, but they are thin and seem to be of good optical quality. I've even stacked three or four of them when necessary (usually a combination of ND filters plus a B&W contrast filter with a soft focus lens). Usually I use them in the Linhof compendium shade, and if I need more than one, I attach them with masking tape. I also have a Gel Snap to use them with big or odd-sized lenses on other cameras.

Andre Noble
13-Jun-2005, 17:23
Gray,

Steer clear of the polyester filters for wide angle large format work. Research the archives here and at photonet - it's a long story, just trust me on this one.

Go with the Kodak gel filters, or better yet, spend the money on the Lee Resin filters.

darter
13-Jun-2005, 17:35
The Lee Polyester filters are okay, but they scratch very easily and have to be used carefully so that they don't cause unwanted reflections. It might be more useful to bite the bullet and buy glass filters with appropriate step up rings for your lenses.

John Kasaian
13-Jun-2005, 17:58
I use Lee Polyesters in a gel snap on my 8x10 and 5x7 lenses. They are good choices if you use a lot of different lenses, many without threads or use slip on filter adapters in sizes that are rare and unobtainable. No compliants though I'm spoiled by my lenses that do have series filter adapters or are threaded to take glass filters. I'd like to stick with one system for all my lenses, but when you're scattered out over four formats and lenses from different vintages its just not possible for me. If you have like a 300 Nikkor M, you can recycle all your filters from your Nikon 35mm SLR system---neat! Find slip on adapters and step up/down rings for your other lenses and you're good to go.

Cheers!

David A. Goldfarb
15-Jun-2005, 09:25
I was curious about André's wideangle problem, so I googled the discussion, and it is indeed a problem that I recognized as soon as I read about it, but I hadn't attributed it to the filter. With a very wide lens, the filter can cause an interference pattern that partially polarizes the light and causes some banding problems.

I haven't seen this in a regular photograph, but I did see it in a test shot with a 75/4.5 Grandagon-N on 8x10" using a Schneider #3 center filter and a Lee 4" orange filter (I was just testing to see how effective the filter was and how much the lens actually covers--a good circle of about 7.5-8" it turns out), and I got this banding toward the edge of the image.

I'll still use them for my slightly wide to long focal length lenses, which don't show this problem.

Has anyone here tried Formatt filters? These are 4" Schott glass filters from Hitech. They seem to be marketed mainly at the cine and video industry. Probably not cheaper than B+W or Heliopan glass filters in this size, but another alternative.