Polarize Rolleiflex lens

I lost my Yellow contrast lens on a recent outing. The BAY 1 or B30 filter must've fallen out on the way home somehow. Anyway in the Rollei bag among sundry other items is a F&H Pol1 lens. IT is turnable. I guess if I google this I will find some info.

I always assumed a polarizing filter was used for color as a contrast or antiflare etc. In B&W work it would act as a ND filter. Would the polarizing filter act as a contrast filter ie enhance the clouds to a degree?? A yellow filter reduces circa 2/3 or a full stop.

Since a polarizing filter can darken blue skies in color it would also do so in black & white, although the effect is more dramatic with yellow, orange, or red filters. IIRC, a polarizing filter most effectively darkens the sky at a right angle to the direction of sunlight. (Please correct me if I'm in error.) One of my favorite ways to get extreme sky darkening was to combine a polarizing filter with a #25 red. Most of the time this was too much so I generally used yellow (K2) filter.

... a polarizing filter most effectively darkens the sky at a right angle to the direction of sunlight. (Please correct me if I'm in error.) ...

You're not :)

Hahaaa Davecaz..

 

OF course a yellow light is preferred for this purpose but since I did have the poli lens in bay I, I considered it as a substitute. The turning or orientation sets the 90/180 grad.. I' guess swapping viewing and taking lens is the trick here and of course calculation of the exposure compensation.

Polarizers do have their place in B&W, and not just for darkening skies.

 

Don't forget that they also can cut out the reflection on foliage and thus avoid "hot spots" on it. That's a job that a colored filtered can't necessarily do that well.

Howdy. Chuck I use polarizers with my Yashica Mats. I use Bay-49mm adapters, so I can move the filter/adapter up to the viewing lens, note what effect is occurring (polarizers has 1-8 marks around the rim), lower the adapter/filter to the taking lens & take the shot. A little practice will have you doing the filter factor thing in short time. Bill

so I can move the filter/adapter up to the viewing lens, note what effect is occurring (polarizers has 1-8 marks around the rim), lower the adapter/filter to the taking lens & take the shot.

Exactly. At the height of the TLR era, I seem to recall that there were linked polarizers that turned together on the viewing and taking lenses.

 

 

Anyhow, the catch with a polarizer as a density filter is that the light directions make for uneven effects. If you just want to darken the sky, a graduated neutral density filter is better.

I use a Heliopan polariser with numbers on the rim. I do not mount it on to the viewing lens but just look through the filter and turn it to the desired effect. Then I look which number is on top and mount the filter on to the taking lens and turn it until the right number is up. Works faster then switching from one lens to the next.