Does filter quality matter?

gone · May 7, 2022

I haven't seen any difference between a cheap filter and an expensive one. Some of the more expensive filters are almost impossible to clean and keep cleaned. I can't remember the brand, but those were not fun filters.Just make sure they're clean when you buy them and no worries.

On a similar subject, I've had a number of lenses over the years that had serious scratches and coating issues on the front element, and sometimes on the back one too. Had one lens w/ a deep scratch in the center of the rear element, a Leica R 90 Summicron that had a rear element that looked like it had been sand blasted on the side that faced inwards. They all gave images just like the clean ones. Fog/haze/fungus will be the real problems, that's difficult to overcome w/o a good cleaning.

You can use just about any filter on any lens w/ step rings.

Sirius Glass · May 7, 2022

ozmoose said:
Filters. Eh heh. I fell for this too, in the 1980s when I bought heavily into Nikons. Got them all. Nikkors. Top dollar ones.

Now and then I've used a yellow. Also an orange. Maybe once, a red. The rest lie at rest in their nice plastic cases, pristinely new, unused. A small fortune in glass.

In all my time in photography, every pro shooter I've ever met used (and still uses) clear UVs. So I bought Nikkor UVs. Every lens I own has one.

And that's all. Nowadays it can all be added in post processing.

Odd, this. They do what they do well, but we can get by just as well without.

So what I'm saying is, get UVs, but for the rest, save your money.

That does not work for black& white film.

Sirius Glass · May 7, 2022

MattKing said:
Tough to do with a slide projector.....

Almost no one bores people to death with slides. Those that shoot film, shoot negative films.

MattKing · May 7, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
Almost no one bores people to death with slides. Those that shoot film, shoot negative films.

Excepting of course, the small but still meaningful number of us who still like and use and project transparency films.

6x4.5 slide - it looks great when projected.

Alan Edward Klein · May 7, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
Almost no one bores people to death with slides. Those that shoot film, shoot negative films.

I scan chromes I shoot and make slide shows digitally that I play on a 75" 4K TV. I add music, titles, credits, and short video clips to the stills to keep the interest up. The rest I just bore them to death.

Sirius Glass · May 7, 2022

Alan Edward Klein said:
The problem is you can't recover later if you have blown out the sky, especially if shooting color chromes.

There are too many problems with graduated ND filters to make them useful. I liken them to the filters that make stars all over or the prism filters that make six copies of an image.

DREW WILEY · May 7, 2022

momus - I'll keep you in mind as a person never to buy a used lens from! Or filter.

Matt - I got nostalgic for a slide show, so have a roll of Ektachrome 100 in my Nikon right now. It might take me a year to shoot it all, since I rarely use 35mm for anything; but still, it's fun to do once in awhile. This morning I did run into my old stash of AN glass-mounted 6X7 slides, looking for something else. A close friend of my older brother made his living, and quite a good one, on slide show competitions back in the 60's. But when Aunt Maude gave a 3 hr slide show of her vacation to the Muffler Shop Hall of Fame in Fresno, well, that was a long snooze.

Sirius Glass · May 7, 2022

DREW WILEY said:
... But when Aunt Maude gave a 3 hr slide show of her vacation to the Muffler Shop Hall of Fame in Fresno, well, that was a long snooze.

Please PM the address so I can go there when I am having insomnia.

MattKing · May 7, 2022

Like everything else, there are good quality slide shows, poor quality slide shows and a wide range between.
It really helps if the slide show is put together by an interesting person, who has interesting thoughts and does interesting things and/or visits interesting places.
And of course, takes good photos.
For many years, Fred Herzog used to rent places like church halls in order to show his 35mm Kodachrome slides. And a lot of people looked forward to seeing them.
Unfortunately, I only heard about them after the fact.

Sirius Glass · May 7, 2022

MattKing said:
Like everything else, there are good quality slide shows, poor quality slide shows and a wide range between.
It really helps if the slide show is put together by an interesting person, who has interesting thoughts and does interesting things and/or visits interesting places.
And of course, takes good photos.
For many years, Fred Herzog used to rent places like church halls in order to show his 35mm Kodachrome slides. And a lot of people looked forward to seeing them.
Unfortunately, I only heard about them after the fact.

I had put together very good slide shows, but people have moved on over the years.

DREW WILEY · May 7, 2022

Heck, I remember full gymnasium slide shows that people paid to attend. We didn't have any movie theaters in the mountains, or TV yet. Those plagues came later,
and you had to cross a deep river canyon to the next county to see a once-a-week movie. My Dad had his own moving film projector; so that's how we did it in the living room. But the big public slide show screens needed pretty hot projectors that probably weren't all that good for the longevity of the slide dyes. Going back a lot further, I've heard old-timers describing aligned 3-projector carbon arc slide shows using RGB in-camera separation negatives. Allegedly best color ever, but in a downright hot room, and slow between sequential images, with some fried fingers if the operator wasn't awfully careful.

wiltw · May 7, 2022

momus said:
I haven't seen any difference between a cheap filter and an expensive one.

Look at this test

Filter Tests - kenandchristine

Find out how filters affect image quality.

www.kenandchristine.com

DREW WILEY · May 7, 2022

If I couldn't tell the difference between the effect of a cheap versus high quality filter, I'd instantly book an appointment with an eye doctor.

Huss · May 8, 2022

DREW WILEY said:
Heck, I remember full gymnasium slide shows that people paid to attend. We didn't have any movie theaters in the mountains, or TV yet. Those plagues came later,
and you had to cross a deep river canyon to the next county to see a once-a-week movie. My Dad had his own moving film projector; so that's how we did it in the living room. But the big public slide show screens needed pretty hot projectors that probably weren't all that good for the longevity of the slide dyes. Going back a lot further, I've heard old-timers describing aligned 3-projector carbon arc slide shows using RGB in-camera separation negatives. Allegedly best color ever, but in a downright hot room, and slow between sequential images, with some fried fingers if the operator wasn't awfully careful.

What was the going rate to attend one of those shows? A bushel of corn or did you also have to throw in some turnips?

AgX · May 9, 2022

momus said:
I haven't seen any difference between a cheap filter and an expensive one. Some of the more expensive filters are almost impossible to clean and keep cleaned.

One such modern, seemingly "repellant" filter out of an rummage box made it into my stack of filters. I still found no simple way way to clean it, when necessary...
For reasons of practicality I so far prefer the older coatings.

NB23 · May 9, 2022

I dont understand Tiffen. Great marketing, they always seem to be present... and all their filters are uncoated. Like, who even buys that?

Arthurwg · May 9, 2022

My idea of Post Processing is the darkroom.

NB23 · May 9, 2022

wiltw said:
My post 41 linked test which included Tiffen, which was the worst result of that test series.
I once destroyed a Tiffen that acted like a prism when it was rotated around, rather than foist it upon an innocent buyer. BTW, while I like Hoya SHMC line, I also know that Hoya offers a line of double-coated filters (Hoya's blue box series) which are in the same class as Tiffen, and they are avoided as well.

Too bad that Hoya totally revamped its lineup and no longer distinguish SHMC, HMC, blue box. Their 'digital' filters were no better than HMC coatings, and now they provide a chart which shows 4 lines of filter coatings, 32, 18, 10 or 6 coating for UV filters, but 16, 18, 10 or zero coatings for CPL, so it is impossible to know coatings simply from the name of the line of filters...HD3 line UV has 32, while HD3 line CPL has only 16 coatings.

I really doubt that filters get 32 coats. I mean, lenses get only a coat or two.

wiltw · May 9, 2022

NB23 said:
I really doubt that filters get 32 coats. I mean, lenses get only a coat or two.

Lens manufacturers have claim 'single coat' or 'double coat' or 'multicoated' for many decades. Now even eyewear lenses can have multicoatings...seven different types of coating are offered!

Sirius Glass · May 9, 2022

NB23 said:
I dont understand Tiffen. Great marketing, they always seem to be present... and all their filters are uncoated. Like, who even buys that?

I do only when I cannot get that particular filter from Hasselblad, Heliopan, B+W, ... and it is the only source.

NB23 · May 9, 2022

wiltw said:
Lens manufacturers have claim 'single coat' or 'double coat' or 'multicoated' for many decades. Now even eyewear lenses can have multicoatings...seven different types of coating are offered!

2 coatings is actually Multicoating.

Besides, there is no benefit to go beyond a few coats. We are not talking Painting walls here.

DREW WILEY · May 9, 2022

Tiffen's thermal sandwich process allows for an especially wide selection of filter colors, but makes coating difficult, They offer just a handful of those.

wiltw · May 9, 2022

NB23 said:
I dont understand Tiffen. Great marketing, they always seem to be present... and all their filters are uncoated. Like, who even buys that?

Historically Tiffen has provided filters to the professional cinema market for an extremely long time...and carried over to TV shooting as well.

About Us

We Help Create the World's Greatest Images! Our business strategy for over 80 years, our strategy has always been to succeed through direct customer interaction and feedback by creating innovative products and services.

tiffen.com

NB23 · May 9, 2022

wiltw said:
Historically Tiffen has provided filters to the professional cinema market for an extremely long time...and carried over to TV shooting as well.

About Us

We Help Create the World's Greatest Images! Our business strategy for over 80 years, our strategy has always been to succeed through direct customer interaction and feedback by creating innovative products and services.

tiffen.com

Yes, it’s their marketing pitch... but the name of the game is coating.

wiltw · May 9, 2022

NB23 said:
Yes, it’s their marketing pitch... but the name of the game is coating.

Given the very high degree of lighting control inherent to movie and TV shooting, they do not shoot under the same high demand circumstances as encountered by a hobbyist or photojournalist, so the importance of having good coatings is less of an issue. The average filter buyer is not well versed in what is truly the mark of 'quality', and the marketing panache has clout, especially in view of the prices commanded by the multicoated filter lines. So much of the market today is driven solely by price...why our small specialty photo stores are all vanishing. Same issue for hardware stores, where price wins so often in spite of lack of service/knowledge at the giant chain hardware.

Does filter quality matter?

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