Hoya black and white filters - any good?

[shannaford]

Hi all - there's a set of hoya filters for black and white (red, orange, yellow etc - the uncoated variety I think) going at a reasonable price here locally. Are the Hoyas a reasonable quality, or do they fall into the same camp as the Cokin NDs? They are only a bargain if they are worth having.
Thanks for your thoughts,
Scott

[vinny]

I've got a hoya polariser that came with a defect in the glass. I didn't have the opportunity to send it back. The filter works fine. I've got a hoya orange (g) filter with a retaining ring that somehow unscrews itself until the glass rattles around. The filter itself is fine. Hoyas I have and have seen use aluminum rings which don't last as long as brass and run the risk of jamming or cross threading in my experience. B+W & heliopan use brass.

[Preston]

An uncoated filter may cause flare problems. I also concur with Vinny's comments regarding the aluminum rings.

You might consider the higher quality filters from B+W and Heliopan. I use B&W Pro series for my screw-in filters. They are built to last, and have excellent multi-coatings.

-Preston

[IanMazursky]

I bought the Hoya 77mm B&W filter set from Calumet's ebay store.
They are of good quality and seem to do the job very well.
I would definitely recommend them especially at the price they are offering it at.

[Brian Schall]

There's two different grades of Hoyas, the regular coated and then the HMC, which are multi-coated. That said, I prefer the HMC if I can get it. I also have a fair amount of the regular grade. I'll take a regular grade Hoya over a Tiffen any day.

The B+W also come in two grades, regular and multi-coated. I'll take the HMC Hoya over a regular grade B+W, but would take the MC B+W over the HMC.

In the end, it usually comes down to price.

[Brian Ellis]

I have quite a few Hoyas and they've always been fine. On one of the larger yellows the glass is a little loose in the rim which is mildly annoying but has no effect on use of the filter. I also have quite a few B+Ws, Heliopans, and Tiffens. They all do well. I use a lens shade quite a bit so I don't worry about coated vs uncoated.

[paul08]

I own Hoyas and B&Ws and the Hoya MC filters seem to work every bit as good. I've never had any problem with the aluminum vs. brass (although I don't usually leave filters on lenses all the time).

[Drew Wiley]

Hoya filters come either single-coated or multi-coated. Both are quite good, substantially better than Tiffen. But I personally only buy the multi-coated variety for general use because I also potentially use them on medium format; and with
certain wide-angle MF lenses I can't control flare as well as with a compendium-shaded view camera lens. In other words, under certain circumstances it might make a difference; but if you are getting a bargain, why not? I don't think I've ever
had a Hoya filter I regretted.

[Peter De Smidt]

I have some Hoya MC filters. They work fine. Uncoated filters might lead to some flare and loss of contrast in some situations, but they also are much less delicate than multi-coated ones.

[Carsten Wolff]

Almost everyone in the industry uses Hoyas to some extent; many cinematographers use some of the Hoyas as well; just stay away from cheap Chinese filters, esp. polarisers and UVs; everything else on the market is basically usable; even B+W and Heliopan have issues, e.g. with their NDs and Polarisers....having said that, their brass mounts are very nice to use. I see B+W/Heliopan being used by well-off amateurs to an almost greater extent than Pros. I'm using a mix of these brands, plus e.g. Tiffen. Frankly, (to me) they are all fine and I couldn't tell from the pics what brand I used.
Note to others that have mentioned loose filter mounts: Using a proper lens wrench with in extreme cases a tiny bit of Loctite on the locking-ring fixes those problems in seconds.