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The Big Filter Problem

The big filter problem seems to be getting more common as zoom lenses and ultrawide angle lenses push the size of filters past the usual 72mm or even 77mm limits encountered in typical amateur usage. The cost of larger filters is also geometrically larger than their smaller brethren, even when you factor in the larger area. This is a case where you buy a filter with twice the area, but pay four or five or more times as much for it!

Many of these filters are available from various filter makers such as B+W and Heliopan as custom ordered filters. So the good news is that you can get many of the standard filters you want. The bad news is that the cost of custom filters in larger filter sizes may exceed the cost of some of the lenses you will want to use them on! This economic reality is a result of low filter demand and the high costs of high quality custom filter manufacture.

What Filters Do You Really Need??

Now if you ask me what filters I really need and use, I would have to say the polarizing filter, a warming filter (#81A or #81b or #812 Tiffen), and a neutral grad filter for landscapes. Now and again, I also use cross-filters, closeup diopters, colored filters (especially orange and red for sunsets), and some soft effects filters for portraits. Most of the odd-ball multi-image prism filters, color correction (including fluorescent to daylight), diffraction gratings, and multicolor filters are rarely used. Since our campus closed its open access darkrooms, I haven't done much B+W work, though I have a number of filters for such work (green..).

Now comes the hard part. Identify which filters you really, really need. Do you really think you need a clear UV filter? Do you scratch up your lenses often? Do your regular filters have lots of scratches on them from use and abuse? Unless you are shooting in sandy or muddy types of environments where your lenses could get scratched by blowing grit and sand, you may not really need a UV filter.

UV filters are often pushed as the highest markup items in most photostores. But better protection may be much cheaper in the large lens sizes by the use of a lens hood and lens cap protector of plastic or metal. Unlike their glass counterparts, a very large metal or plastic lens protector will only cost a few dollars more than the typical 52 or 58mm varieties. If you are worried about your lens, insure it. Insurance may be cheaper and cover a lot more problems than some of those big UV filters I see folks buying.

How about a polarizer? Do you really need it? I used to think I really needed a polarizer for my ultrawide lenses. Then I discovered I didn't like the excessive darkening in one part of the sky that resulted. Polarizers are maximally effective 90 degrees away from the sun. If you have an ultrawide lens that covers circa 90 degrees or more, you may find that you don't need a polarizer all the time either.

How about one of those great color enhancing filters to really bring out those autumn leaf colors? Sounds great, until you price them in 82mm and above sizes (if available at all). A better option may be to explore some of the newer color intensifying films now available. While the effects may be subtly different, you can get a wide range of color intensification effects and color biases rather more cheaply using different types of film. Many of us have noted how Kodachrome 25 really responds to reds, while the older Fuji films had a way with greens too. For many needs, you can also process the images digitally to intensify colors after the fact.

I recently picked up a Bowens Illumitran slide duplicating setup so I could duplicate slides, make backups, create slide "sandwiches" from multiple images, and control coloration and other factors. Zoom and regular slide duplicators are also available, often at modest prices as slides are now less popular with amateur users. Using these systems, you can do after-the-shot slide color changes, as if you had filtered many shots using various color filters. While less handy than a 122mm yellow colored filter, you can have more control over coloration using a slide duplicator setup. While this isn't for everyone, you can arrange for some kinds of filter effects to be applied during color or black and white printing, even if you don't do your own darkroom work. For rarely used colored filters, this approach can be useful. You can also put some of that down-time between field trips to productive use exploring and creating new images from your stock photo files.

My point here has been that you should be able to greatly reduce the number of filters you really need in the larger sizes by considering which filters you actually use.

Big Filter Options

You basically have these options in your filter purchases:
• pay the big $$ and buy custom filters for every size you need
• buy the largest filter you might ever need and use step-down rings
• buy the filters you use a lot in the larger size - but nothing else
• buy the filters you use a lot, and a resin filter system (e.g., Cokin P)
• buy just the resin filter system and use it for all your filter needs
• buy resin filter system and special needs filters (e.g., thin ultrawide filters)
• Use older Series Filters and adapters (series VIII, IX, X..)
• Use gel filters such as Kodak Wratten filters in system holders
• cheat - put smaller filters at the rear of the lens or inside, and
• make your own big filters using surplus and other materials

Filter Quality

At the other end of the scale, a Linhof filter holder is $595 US, and many quality filter lines start at $100 US and up. The 136mm screw-thread center filter for the 210mm f/8 super angulon runs about $2,850.00 (list). Surprise! That's one filter you won't find in my filter collection!

What makes a quality filter cost so much more? The most important factor is high optical quality. In some cases, this translates into quality brass mountings, rather than aluminum or other lesser metals. Brass seizes up much less often, and makes use easier and faster, with less risk of cross-threading and thread damage.

Other filters are coated, or even multi-coated, using similar vacuum coating deposition equipment. This coating reduces reflections from the surface of the filter, which is one of the quality reducing effects of filters in some bad lighting situations (e.g., side lighting striking the surface of the filter due to lack of a proper lens hood). Despite the ads, multi-coating only provides a modest improvement over single coatings. As with lenses, the big difference is uncoated versus coated filters, rather than multicoated versus coated filters. Even so, uncoated filters used carefully, avoiding side lighting and dirt/grease on the filter, can still produce excellent results. So don't throw them away even if they aren't multicoated!

A somewhat subtle difference is the degree of flatness of the filter. A top quality filter should be truly plano-parallel, meaning flat and parallel to the lens (on each filter face plane). Some manufacturers achieve this by cutting the filter out of optical glass and flattening it using an optical lap or other grinding technologies. As with optical flats, an interference test or other optical test for flatness is used to ensure that the filters are truly flat and truly parallel (including when mounted). Other companies simply pour out the filter glass on a slab and use a roller to press out a flat glass blank from which their filters are cut ("cookie cutter" fashion per their pricier competitor's ads).

Fortunately, many millions of pressed filters are quite flat enough for photographic work and are so used every day for taking zillions of pictures. Lots of us use Hoya filters (and others Tiffen brand) every day, as one brand example. Lots of OEM filters (Hasselblad, Rollei, Bronica) are actually made by another corporation specializing in filters, including other OEMs. For example, I have a Zenza Bronica filter for my classic Bronica S2a that was actually made by Pentax (Asahi Corp.), another OEM. This is one reason that you will rarely see Japanese corporations running down each others products, including filters!

Another side effect of this marketing scheme is that OEM filters made by somebody else may be cheaper to buy directly than from the OEM who has to add on their overhead costs and profits. For example, the B+W 95mm Kasemann circular polarizer is "only" circa $250 US, while the Rollei 95mm Kasemann circular polarizer is an eye-catching $500 US. Ouch! Conversely, the Hasselblad and B+W bayonet-60 Kasemann polarizers are both around $225 US, versus $150 for the Heliopan examples, and half of that for either the Tiffen or Hoya version. So we are talking a 300% range in prices here!

Speaking of quality, filters are made in a number of ways. The best and most color stable filters are usually the batch dyed glasses, such as those used in the Kodak series filters. At the other end of the scale, two pieces of glass are placed on either side of a colored gel or plastic circle. A potential problem here is that poor sealing of the edges of the filter will allow moisture to attack the gel layer, causing it to discolor and swell.

Some filters such as polarizers inherently have such optical polarizing material at their center. Kasemann filters are just well sealed and optically guaranteed flat circular polarizers. A circular polarizer is a regular linear polarizer with a 1/4 wave plate behind it. You get a polarizer effect in one direction, but not if you flip it around (a test for a circular polarizer versus linear). Many folks believe they need the more expensive circular polarizer, but check your camera manual as lots of electronic cameras work well with the cheaper linear versions (not most AF cameras, sad to say).

Resin filters vary in quality too. Lee filters are often cited as the best quality by many pro users, with brands like Singh-Ray often close second place choices. The Cokin filters are much less costly, but be careful if you select their "grey" grad NDX filters for use as graduated neutral density filters for landscape work. Many folks report that their "grey" has a non-neutral coloration which is undesirable in a "neutral" filter. Resin filters are easier to scratch, so be careful!

Series Filters

The good news is that series filters are low cost but often high quality batch-dyed glass filters. Many of my larger series VII, VIII, and IX Kodak series filters are very good quality, with excellent color and filter flatness. The main problem with larger series filters is that they are hard to find, but often cheap when you find them. They also mandate a rather thick filter setup by the time you have a mounting ring, a filter, and the outer retaining ring. In practice, this thickness makes them less useful for some wide angle and especially very wide angle lens work. The thick series filter mounts simply vignette these wide angle lenses too badly, and a thinner design has to be used.

But for many lenses, especially telephoto and normal lenses, the series filters work fine. If you have older budget medium format or large format cameras and lenses, you may find that such series filters are part of the camera system and lens design. You will need series filter to standard filter thread size adapter rings to use other standard threaded filters (e.g., 52mm) with your series filter threaded lenses (e.g., series VII on Koni Omega 90mm).

Rear Mounted Filters

Many camera makers have responded to the complaints of their customers by providing rear mounting point for standard filters (e.g., 52mm for some large front diameter Nikon lenses). This trick makes it easy for their customers to simply use their standard threaded filters (e.g., 52mm) on the rear of these lenses. Unfortunately, this trick doesn't work so well with filters like polarizers or neutral gradient filters where you have to rotate or shift them around when used. But for many filters, the rear mounting system saves major dollars you will need for making payments on that big lens.

You can cheat by installing your own rear mounting on many lenses. This trick works best on telephoto lenses and others where the rear of the lens is sufficiently distant from the film plane as to avoid vignetting. Here again, many fisheye and ultra-wide angle lenses may be hard to use with rear mounted filters without vignetting.

One additional tip is to explore the use of gel filters. Being very thin (0.5mm up), gel filters will have the lowest mounting height of any standard filter. Some large format lens makers offer a simple rear filter mounting accessory for use on lenses. You can make one of these yourself, and install it on the lens rear. Some systems use velcro mounts, while others rely on press-fit adapters (often starting with a series filter press-on adapter).

Finally, you can simply break out the glass from a standard filter and glue that filter ring at the rear of some lenses (e.g., telephotos). Now you can simply screw the desired filters into that lens like the similar commercial rear filter mounts.

You will see a number of "combination" filters now coming to the market. For example, a warming filter and polarizer combination is quite popular with long telephoto users. This combination saves space and weight, and reduces vignetting that two filters stacked together might cause. Unfortunately, the prices for these dual filters aren't much less than the price of each filter individually, largely due to low sales volume I presume. But you can use rear-mounted warming filters instead with your regular polarizer, at much lower cost than a large warming filter or combination polarizer-warming filter. If you generally shoot with the warming filter, you can leave it in place using your rear lens mount.

Using Gels To Shift Lens Coloration

Making Your Own Biggie Oversized Filters

Filtering the Light

Lens Coloration

Many OEM lens makers argue that they have carefully matched the coloration of their lenses, so you can shoot slides with different lenses in their lines without injecting any lens color shading differences in your shots. Most of us wouldn't notice such subtle color differences. But if you find one of your lenses has a pronounced color shift, you can fine tune its coloration with a bit of color correction gel of the appropriate strength (e.g., CC05R for faint red to warm up a "cold" or bluish lens). The use of a gel at the rear of the lens is one way to make this coloration change semi-permanent, without requiring you to stack filters in front.

You can also use this trick to "warm" up a lens when shooting in colder (bluish open sky) shade lighting, similar to using a #81B or stronger warming filter.

Film Tricks

Filtering After the Fact

Naturally, you can't mimic every filter after the fact (e.g., polarizers), but you can do a suprising amount of fun experimentation this way. One recommendation is to always shoot a "straight" or unfiltered shot of the scene, even when you are convinced all you really want is the filtered shot. Many times, the unfiltered shot can be used where the filtered shot is problematic. You can also reshoot the filtered shot after the fact, varying the amount of filtering as needed with bracketed shots of your "straight" shot of the scene.

If you have a digital darkroom, you can do much more, including even some distortion controls and special filter effects using software such as Photoshop. Again, the utility of a "straight" unfiltered shot is very high, so be sure to take at least one (and bracketing may be handy too!).

Related Postings

you wrote:

> I've started putting a new system together based on a 503CW and I need some
> recommendations on filters.
>
> First, is there any real advantage of going strickly with bayonet mounted
> filters, other than the obvious one of speedier changes, or would using a
> Bay 60 to 67mm adapter with B+W filters be just as good?  The 67mm B+W
> filters are on the average, half the cost of their Bay 60 ones.

I've done it both ways and I prefer 75mm "gel" (optical polyester, really) made by Lee Filters. (In the US, Calumet Photographic sells them under the Calumet name.) They are a lot cheaper than glass and because they are considerably thinner, image degradation is less a problem. I usually use a Pro Shade to hold them.

> Second, discounting all of the advertising hype, is there any real life
> quality differences between B+W and Hasselblad filters?

No. Not any that are really significant.

Patrick Bartek
NoLife Polymath Group
bartek@pdai.com

From Hasselblad Mailing List;
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001
From: Jim Brick jim@brick.org
Subject: Re: Need Filter Recommendations

B+W and Heliopan filters are at least as good as, and I suspect in many cases, better than Hasselblad filters. However, I don't know where Hasselblad buys their filters. Could be B+W or Heliopan. You can get multicoated B+W and Heliopan as well as thin versions - which work well on wide angle lenses.

The Hasselblad 67-B60 & 77-B70 adapters is what I use except for the polarizers, which are Hasselblad that I got from eBay for half price. All of my 4x5 LF lenses are 67mm so the adapters allow me to use one set of filters on both systems. Several of my Leica lenses are 77mm so I get dual use there as well.

Jim

[Ed. note: Mr. Salomon makes a good point re: you have to use optical quality polarizing material in any homebrew polarizer!...]
From: Bob Salomon bob@hpmarketingcorp.com
Newsgroups: rec.photo.equipment.large-format
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001
Subject: Re: Cheap polarizing filter?

Yes they can work but they are not photographic quality so they probably will degrade the image.

There are many different types of polarizing material made by Polaroid and others but very few are designed to be put on a camera lens.

heliopan, besides selling ones for the lens also sells sheets of polarizing foils in 2 thickness up to large sheets. But they are for lighting and are not optically acceptable for lenses.

Wood Grain Vinyl wrote:

> I was wondering if a polarizing filter which was made in the ancient days of
> 386 computers to cut glare on a monitor was applicable to being used on a big
> format camera as a real polarizing filter?
>
> Wood Grain.

--
HP Marketing Corp. 800 735-4373 US distributor for: Ansmann, Braun, CombiPlan, DF Albums, Ergorest, Gepe, Gepe-Pro, Giottos, Heliopan, Kaiser, Kopho, Linhof, Novoflex, Pro-Release, Rimowa, Sirostar, Tetenal Cloths and Ink Jet Papers, VR, Wista, ZTS www.hpmarketingcorp.com

From ROllei Mailing List;
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001
From: Bob Shell bob@bobshell.com
Subject: Re: [Rollei] ARGH! Sorensen and the Filter Myth!

There is a nifty gel holder for the back side of LF lenses. I think maybe it's in the Calumet catalog. I put gels on the back when shooting LF for two reasons, flare reduction and to keep the wind from blowing them away!

Bob

....

> I found it interesting that Ansel Adams put his filters at the back of his
> lens.
> And those zone VI fanatics were into that.
> My large format lens is a 210 Fujinon which takes a 67 mm front thread.
> Those are filters which i don't have;
> but i do have 49's which i got for my 135 3.4 apo Leica M, B+W multicoated.
> So I'll screw those on the back of the lens and think I'm doing great.
> But perhaps Richard has brought up some issues i should consider.
> Ansel I'm pretty sure was using gels which are on no optical consequence.
> Although high end B+W filters would probably be OK....
>
> Mark Rabiner
> Portland, Oregon

From Rollei Mailing List;
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001
From: Bob Shell bob@bobshell.com Subject: Re: [Rollei] ARGH! Sorensen and the Filter Myth!

> From: Marc James Small msmall@roanoke.infi.net
> Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 
> Subject: RE: [Rollei] ARGH!  Sorensen and the Filter Myth!
>
> By 1960, it was contended that
> the inner UVa filter was sufficient for all but photography at extremely
> high altitudes, say 20,000 ft/6,000m or above.

I've been told by optical designers that the cement used in modern lenses absorbs practically all of the UV, making UV filters unnecessary except in extreme situations.

Bob

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