I bought a Sinar polarizer holder recently, and the polarizer that came in it is damaged a little more than I thought. For many of my lenses, the damage isn't important--that giant filter is far larger than the fronts of most of my lenses, with a 90/5.6 SA being the only possible exception. That holder is really slick, allowing the polarizer to be adjusted (and metered through) in free air and then swung into place at the correct orientation. Also, it saves the need for fitting a polarizer to each lens in my oddball collection. Until now, I've been holding a polarizer in front of the lens, but that gets old after a while.
Here are the questions:
1. My reading suggests that the filter threads are 105x1 on the Sinar holder, and nominally that seems to be the case (that's the distance from thread tip to thread tip). Has anyone fitted a conventional 105mm filter to the Sinar holder as confirmation?
2. B+W sells a range of polarizers in that dimension, but none of them in that size are coated. Near as I can tell, neither is the Sinar filter. Anybody care to comment on that, particularly those who have used these filters? I'm assuming, of course, that shading would be even more important, but I'm good about that. I wonder about added veiling flare.
3. I already own a Bronica-branded 95mm linear polarizer, which I have used without complaint in medium format. It is also not coated, but I know it works. SK Grimes, however, wants a fairly large percentage of the street price of the uncoated, non-Kaesemann B+W linear polarizer to build the required custom step-down ring. Is the Kaesemann filter worth the extra hundred bucks? It is still not coated in that size.
4. Is coating so important that I should spend the extra zillion bucks and buy a Heliopan (assuming they are coated in that size--I don't find nearly as clear and detailed information on the web about their filters as Schneider provides for B+W)?
5. How short a lens (or, more accurately, how shallow an angle) can I use with a conventional polarizer, and not one of the super-thin wide-angle designs?
6. Anyone think of the obvious easy option that I'm missing?
I suspect I can use this one temporarily if I'm careful, so this is a bit more of a long-term question.
Rick "appreciative" Denney
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