85 filter?

brofkand · Sep 10, 2008

Hey all,

I went to Camera World (a camera store in Charlotte) to pick up some paper and other odds and ends.

When I was there, I saw they had a wheel barrow filled with old filters. I only got one (the only one I saw that was 52mm). It is an 85 filter, and it is an orange color.

There is no manual, and I can't seem to find anything about it online other than something about adjusting color temperature. What exactly does it do?

I shoot B&W Film. Would this filter be of an use to me on B&W Film, or on a digital SLR?

Thanks!

DWThomas · Sep 10, 2008

They are used to shoot tungsten film in daylight. There are actually several #85 for slightly different balance.

#85 (KR 12)
Light balancing filter. Type A tungsten (artificial light) color films can be used in daylight or with an electronic flash. The filter is brown and eliminates the overall blue cast. The filter factor is approximately 2.
#85B (KR 15)
Light balancing filter. Type B tungsten (artificial light) color films can be used in conditions such as mountains where even daylight film would require a KR 3 or a #6 filter.
The filter factor is approximately 2.3.
#85C
Amber. Converts 5500K (daylight) to 3800K lighting.

From http://www.jackspcs.com/filters.htm

You would have to experiment, but it might work about like an orange for black and white -- dunno, never tried it.

DaveT

Lee L · Sep 10, 2008

DWThomas said:
You would have to experiment, but it might work about like an orange for black and white -- dunno, never tried it.

The standard B&W orange filter #21 or similar has a very sharp cut off, like other filters designed primarily for B&W. The Wratten 85 filters have a much more gradual slope, and are a color biasing rather than a cut off filter. The different 85 series filters just have variations on that more gradual slope, and won't increase color contrast nearly as dramatically as the orange, or even yellow B&W filters.

Lee

CBG · Sep 10, 2008

The 85 filters are designed for color film work, to match the color response of the film to the color of the ambient light.

Regardless, an 85 filter will be usable for B+W contrast control. Just try it on a sunny day with clouds in the sky. Shoot pix with and without it. You'll see a change in the rendering of the sky. The blue of the sky will be darkened by the orange in the filter. The clouds will stand out more clearly, through the filter, against the tone of the sky. Without a contrast filter, the clouds will render a bit less differentiated from the sky.

Try one stop compensation for light loss through the filter.

C

Lee L · Sep 10, 2008

Tiffen's exposure adjustments:

Filter / Conversion / Exposure increase

85 5,500 to 3,400 K 2/3 stop
85B 5,500 to 3,200 K 2/3 stop
85C 5,500 to 3,800 K 1/3 stop

Lee

Mike Wilde · Sep 10, 2008

Try it on portraiture

I find with some ladies skin, an orange filter can work for lower key portraits. See if you like the effect.

Lee L · Sep 10, 2008

The milder 81A, 81B, 81C series filters are usually preferred for skin tone improvement with color films, shifting only a few hundred degrees Kelvin rather than a couple of thousand degrees K.

Lee

nworth · Sep 10, 2008

Actually, the filter is salmon colored. It is used to expose Type A color film in daylight. Type A film is balanced for 3400K photofloods, and it is rarely, if ever, seen these days. The 85 is a less intense version of the 85B. These are light balancing filters, and they are not really designed for contrast work. They pass all colors, but they pass more light at the red end of the spectrum. An 85 would produce some darkening of the sky and lightening of the yellows and reds with black and white film, but not nearly as much as an orange filter, or even a deep yellow.

85 filter?

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