Favorite filter for classic (or near classic gear)

<p>Do you have a filter type (black & white or for color) that you use with your classic gear more than any other? In recent years I've found that for black & white I reach for a deep yellow filter more often than any other type. For color, I usually don't use a filter at all (except for a UV haze from time to time.</p>

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<p>I almost always have a yellow filter on for black and white film.</p>

 

<p>When shooting B&W, I carry yellow, orange, red, and green filters. I use the orange and red filters the most.</p>

<p>Y2 for me made by Walz, usually a push on on my folders especially the uncoated lenses. For color, UV/Sky, and polarizer for added contrast if the situation requires it.</p>

<p>I don't shoot b&w very often, but when I do, I definitely use a Y2 filter. For colour, although I use a polarizer often, I also use ND filters a lot for waterfall shots. I have ND filters in a variety of sizes so that I can use them with different cameras and lenses. I also have a Cokin A mounted graduated ND filter for sunrise and sunset shots.</p>

<p>I default to Orange, but often switch to a Red, sometimes with Polarizer. I don't use Yellow much anymore.</p>

<p>I don't shoot much B&W any more, but I like the yellow filters, primarily to show the clouds. For color film, I have a UV or skylight on a lot of my lenses to protect the lenses, but I also think that a polarizer is almost always beneficial. Same for lens shades. I am moderately color blind, which kept me out of pilot training. I am fairly good with basic colors, not with pastels, and the best way I can describe it is that I can't tell a caution light from a red light except by position. Made for some exciting times in my youth when some intersections had only blinking lights with no lettering, because you are damned either way.</p>

<p>I shot a lot of B&W while in Vietnam, because processing was locally available and quite good. My favorited film was Plus-x and a midium yellow filter was permanently attached to my Konica, and since the CdS cell was in the lens barrel, the exposure was automatically corrected. Plus to western eyes, everything we saw was exotic. I would photograph people close up and they seemed to love it, whereas most of us in the US would think, probably rightfully so, that our privacy was being invaded.</p>

<p>In the early days of digital, I would visit camera shops and many of them had junk boxes filled with filters of all sizes and colors that they were virtually giving away. Probably my most complete set of filters for any given camera model are dozen of filters for the Retina series. I think they were 32mm.</p>

<p>I like and use on limited occasions the Nikon 52mm A2 warming filter.</p>

<p>For b&w, it's Orange, Yellow, Red & Green for me. For color, I use a polarizer a great proportion of the time.</p>

<p>I shoot a lot (80%) of B&W. I'd like to get better contrast in our skies which tend to have thin - not very dense clouds. Suggestions for filters?</p>

<p>Polarizer for me, invaluable in our harsh Antipodean light. I have them in most of the sizes one encounters in older SLR's, but it's sometimes difficult with the old rangefinders. In B/W, deep yellow for landscape, red for that special sky. A UV filter is a stock fitting if nothing else is in use, as much for protection as anything. Polarizers are great for skies, <strong>Mark</strong>, as they tend to maintain the original tonal balance while still darkening the sky.</p>

<p>For B+W orange all the way.<br>

For colour I try not to filter, preferring to let the film and lens do the magic to the colours for me.</p>

<p>For B&W film, Light Green (X0), Yellow, and Orange, in that order. For color, Polarizer, warming (81B or C).</p>

<p>My favourite filter for B&W landscape must be a yellow-green. I only have one yellow-green filter in 52mm diameter. In the summertime I use a lot of polarizer with my SLR cameras and all kinds of ND filters with my rangefinders. One filter I would like to have is the rare Minolta Autopol polarizer for Bay-1 TLR cameras.</p>

<p>I third the recommendation for X0 light yellow-green. Makes sky, foliage, people look good.</p>

<p>For B&W, Y2 and Deep Red. For colour, Polarizer. </p>

<p>Soft focus for black & white or color portraits</p>

<p>Can't say I have a favorite, I just use whatever I think the scene needs. That said, since I don't have the Canon Series VII auto-up for my Canon 7 rangefinder, I have been working with a Canon 250D closeup filter (48mm) on the 50mm f/1.4 lens with surprisingly good results.</p>

<p>For B&W film, I have Nikon medium yellow (Y48) filters on my lenses. I carry around orange and red filters too, but seldom use them.<br>

For color film, all my lenses have Nikon L37c (UV) filters. I also carry around a couple of L1Bc (skylight) filters.</p>