Hoya CP filters for Canon EF 24-105 lens confusion

<p>Hi folks, I've read several posts about Hoya circular polariser for my Canon EF 24-105 lens (on a Canon 5D II body) and I'm a bit confused... Many users report vignetting useing filters at wide end (24 mm) but it seems due to the lens more that to the filter...<br>

I'm interested in two models: Hoya PRO 1 Digital Circular Pol. filter and Hoya HD series Circular Pol. filter... The latter seems to be very slim (good for avoid vignetting) but without front screw to fit the lens cap and it seems optically better (1 stop lost instead of 2?)...<br>

Do you have experience with this filters and lens combo? Besides I plan to buy a 17-40 f4 L lens in the near future... Will I notice strong vignetting with this wide zoom lens?<br>

Thank you for your help, Alberto.</p>

<p>I've been looking at 77mm circular polarizers, mainly B&W and Hoya. Differences are between for instance coated and multi-coated. To me that seems less important in a polarizer than other filters but your mileage certainly may vary. I think I like the B&W coated filter http://www.adorama.com/BW77CPL.html or the Hoya single coated polarizer http://www.adorama.com/HY77CPL.html but you may want the extra coating and cachet of the multi-coated polarizers; B&W http://www.adorama.com/BW77CPLM.html or Hoya http://www.adorama.com/HY77CPLM.html. There are a few more exotic filters out there. I'd skip the 'thin' filters' as unnecessary. But you may want a 'Moose' polarizer for a warmer look or a Kaesemann filter. Good luck! </p>

<p>A couple of comments. First it isn't very often a great idea to use a polariser with a very wide lens. This is because a polariser works most strongly at 90 deg to the sun and the field of view is enough to include sections of different degrees of polarisation. More simply put, you're liable to get soft edged stripes that spoil your pictures.</p>

<p>If you accept that , then you might also accept that whether a polarising filter causes vignetting at the wide end of the range of a wide zoom isn't terribly relevent, since you should be taking the CP off at those focal lengths. If you want to strengthen a blue sky with a wide lens a grad is a better tool than a polariser, unless there's no sky in the shot which is less likely with a wide lens.</p>

<p>I have owned and still do own several Hoya Pro 1 CP filters. Some of them have a front thread, others don't. But again I don't think this is terribly relevent as I rarely want to screw anything in the front of a polariser. I don't get a lot of true vignetting with the 24-105 and any darkening I do notice is easily removed by the vignette tool in Lightroom/Adobe Camera Raw. I couldn't honestly tell you about the 17-40 which I also have because I so rarely use a polariser with that lens.</p>

<p>In general I much prefer B+W multicoated (MRC) polarisers to Hoya. They are a lot easier to clean and the coating seems a lot more resilient. For me a B+W filter is for life- or at least till I drop it or lose it, A Hoya Pro 1 I tend to need to replace because of lots of tiny scratches in the coating cased by cleaning and scuffing in the bag if I leave it on a lens for a little while. The slim B+W I have are about the same thickness as a Hoya Pro 1- so no more or less likeley to cause vignetting. </p>

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<p>I use a normal thickness Hoya Pro 1 CP on my 24-105 L and experience absolutely no vignetting at 24mm. Nuttin'. Zippo. Zero. Normally vignetting is caused by stacking filters or by an incorrectly installed hood. However the 24-105 does suffer some light falloff in the corners but this has nothing to do with the polarizer causing vignetting but, instead, is a design problem inherent to wide zooms (image brightness is less on the extremes of the image circle). If you stop down to F5.6 it reduces considerably and disappears by F8.</p>

<p>I've used a polarizer extensively to shoot products, waterfalls and streams and have not seen any soft edged "stripes." I don't use a polarizer for skies much anymore but even so the transitions of tone are gradual unless already very sudden to begin with. Skies are not normally solid and even blue. The key is to know when not to use it or to dial it down. Back in the day I used to dial it in to the max and nearly black out the sky. Note that the tonal variation from top to bottom looks like a weak graduated filter was used. It's not the the "graduated" sky that makes my image look unnatural (that is natural). It's the use of too much polarizer and the subseqently too dark skies.<br>

<img src="http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/frary/Northwest_Images/mukilteo_light.jpg" alt="" width="461" height="678" /></p>

<p>Just to add a note.<br /> Use of a polarizer can still be handy, even on very wide lenses, if you are using it to tamp down reflections off non-metallic surfaces. For the sky darkening, it's usually easier and better to use a Cokin-style graduated neutral density filter. The field on really wide angles can just be too great for the polarizing effect on sky to be consistent. Of course, as in the example above, the angle of sky covered is less in a vertical shot. :)</p>

<p>I don't think the Moose 'warming' idea is necessary on digital, given how easy it is to change color temperature in ACR or elsewhere in post-processing.</p>

<p>My expericnce with the Hoya Pro CP filter on a 5D+24-105 reflects what's been said previously, no real vignetting other than the normally expected light fall off. To get any real impingement on the field of view, you would have to stack 3 filters and that's a fairly unusual circumstances.</p>

<p>If possible consider making some test shots at your local camera dealer using the filter you wish to purchase.</p>