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Title: Circular Polarizer Post by: invisible12 on September 03, 2008, 06:30:27 PM I looked around and saw a few threads on circular polarizers, but I couldn't find the information I was kind of looking for. I'm a beginner photographer, and I got a Canon XT for Christmas, and I just have the basic kit lens & 75-300. I was looking into getting a polarizer since I love to take landscapes. My question is, what should I get? I know what size I need, but beyond that, I'm not sure. I don't have a ton of money but I still want something that is good quality. I was looking at a Tiffen one, and a couple of Hoya multi coated ones. The Tiffen is about $25, and the Hoyas are around $50. Should I be thinking about getting a multi coated one? The Hoyas I was looking at were HMC/SHMC.
Thanks! Title: Re: Circular Polarizer Post by: Bob Atkins on September 03, 2008, 07:00:09 PM Hoya and Tiffen are both good options and are reasonably priced. The Tiffen polarizers are, I think, uncoated. However I have one and I've had no issues with it. If you really want to be safe and minimize your chances of flare, a Hoya coated polarizer would be your best bet. HMC is fine.
I think anti-reflection coating are slighly less necessary on polarizers than on other filters because some of the internal reflections have to pass through the glass of the filter and since the glass is dark it attenuates them. I certainly wouldn't buy a polarizer from a brand I'd never heard of. Other than Hoya and Tiffen, there's Heliopan and B+W, but they tend to be more expensive and there's very little (if any) optical difference. See http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/digital_filters.html Title: Re: Circular Polarizer Post by: invisible12 on September 05, 2008, 12:03:46 PM Hoya and Tiffen are both good options and are reasonably priced. The Tiffen polarizers are, I think, uncoated. However I have one and I've had no issues with it. If you really want to be safe and minimize your chances of flare, a Hoya coated polarizer would be your best bet. HMC is fine. I think anti-reflection coating are slighly less necessary on polarizers than on other filters because some of the internal reflections have to pass through the glass of the filter and since the glass is dark it attenuates them. I certainly wouldn't buy a polarizer from a brand I'd never heard of. Other than Hoya and Tiffen, there's Heliopan and B+W, but they tend to be more expensive and there's very little (if any) optical difference. See http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/digital_filters.html Thanks a bunch, Bob! Title: Re: Circular Polarizer Post by: invisible12 on September 07, 2008, 02:42:37 PM ... a Hoya coated polarizer would be your best bet. HMC is fine ... If the super is the same price, would that be better than just the HMC? The super coating does sound a little better than the regular HMC, but also I believe the super is thin for wide angle lenses, but I wouldn't have the problem so I don't know if this would be a con. Title: Re: Circular Polarizer Post by: Bob Atkins on September 07, 2008, 03:58:53 PM The HMC Super filters have a slightly more efficient AR coating. I think the HMC have 97% transmission and the SHMC filters have 99.7%. Both are very good.
Sometimes the very thin filters don't have front threads so you can't stack another filter on them (which isn't a very good idea anyway, or worse, you can't clip a lens hood on them. I really don't know whether the thin SHMC Hoya polarizers have front filter threads or not, but it's something to check. Unless you have a really wide lens (like the EF-S 10-22), you probably don't need a thin filter |