Time to change to square filters?

With the impending arrival of some new Hasselblad lenses, the dreaded

filter voice came along...

"You need a new set of filters to fit your new lens" (This was first

heard when my 20-35mm arrived and wanted a wopping 77mm filter.)

 

And rightly so, one of the new lenses is going to be a 50mm CF

Distagon. Since I started photography many moons ago I've always used

screw-in filters, I didn't really know about Cokin until someone

stuffed a catalogue into my hands one day, but I just saw all the

cheesy special effects filters, pointed, laughed and threw the

catalogue in the bin. Only two years ago I've discovered that Cokin

is not just cheesy filters and more recently discovered the Lee and

Tiffen filters.

Now currently I have and extensive collection of 52mm filters from my

35mm days. As luck would have it, my Hasselblad came with an old 80mm

lens using the B50 mount. So I went off and got myself a B50 to 52mm

Screw adaptor and kept on using my old filters. 99% of my filters

were bought second hand (I'm a student), screw-in filters second hand

are plentiful, but the square ones don't seem that ready available

used.

Another point is I like landscape photography. So there are times

when one feels like breaking out the graduated filter. With the three

graduated 52mm screw-in filters I own, the point where the graduation

starts is directly in the middle of the glass, thus my horizons have

to run across the middle of my frame or else it looks _REAL_ bad. So

the concept of being able to change the position of the graduation

with square filters appeals to me, greatly.

 

So I was wondering what direction should I take? Do I trade in my 20+

52mm filters and go for a Cokin P system? Or bite the bullet and go

out buy a B60 to 62/67mm adaptor and buy set of 62/67mm filters?

 

Also can someone tell the difference/ similarities between the Cokin,

Lee and Tiffen filter systems? I live here in New Zealand and we only

seem to have the Cokin system readily available.

 

Stu :)

Well, I can only speak from past experience. I also have a lot of screw in filters for my 35mm system. I recently picked up a couple of A-series Cokin filters, which work better for me. But The A-series filters vignette part of the image when I set my zoom on the wide angle side.

 

So, now that I am going MF, I ordered some P-series filters from B&H. I got an adapter for both of my Bronica lenses, as well as one for my 28-105 Canon lens.

 

I really do think that the P-series are worth the step up, and they can be a reasonable cost as well( most of the black and white filters are $13).

because of my personal experience with Cokin P filters (primarily with the the "grey

grads' --yes they are gray and have a graduated density but what color of gray are

they as they are certainly not neutral?) I can't advise you to go with the Cokin filters.

A better choice would be the Lee, Hitech or Singh-Ray filters. Some of these filters

are made to fitthe Cokin P filter holder. Because you are getting int o wide angle

lenses territory I think a better choice is the Lee 100mm wide filter holder.

My recommendation is to go for cokin P filter holders and use a mix of cokin and Hitech filters. Use Cokin for Polarizer and 81 series, Hitech for neutral density and grads. I use the cokin holder on the original 50mm CF lens (bay 60) and it gets nowhere close to vignetting.

I'd look at the Hitech flexible filters, they are far thinner that Lee or Cokin and

are the same manufacturer as the incredibly expensive Sinar resin filters.

Thinner is better when it comes to gel/resin filters, it means less possible

diffraction or dispersion of the light passing through them. The Lee and

Cokin filters are thick. One word of caution, gel and resin filters can cause

loss of sharpness with telephoto lenses. If you stay under 200mm you should

be ok, but with longer lenses you are better off with glass. At this point i will

only use gel/resin filters with wide angle lenses. I travel with at least 7-8

lenses when i shoot, all of the wide angles are fitted for 4 inch gels, all of the

normal to teles are fitted with 67mm filters. I use high quality step up/down

rings to make them all 67mm.

 

When i travel with my rollei system I use 67mm filters but have gotten the

bayonet adapters for the filters I use most often. one thing about glass is that

you can also get multi coatings, something which is not available on gel/resin.

Maybe I'm off-subject, but are there any 100mm square glass filters like Lee resin/gel filters? Since round glass filters are cut from square planchettes, why don't the glass filter mfgs market multi-coated bare-square filters? Or does that idea have an obvious "no-way" answer?

Keep your filters if they work! For graduated neutral density, I use Singh-Ray filters in the Cokin P adaptor. Singh-Rays are more color neutral than the Cokin ND filters. The only reason I own the Cokin P filter holder is indeed for my beloved Singh Rays, for all else I use B60.

'Here's a vote for Hi-Tech filters.They are comparable in quality to Lee filters,yet are much cheaper.Of course,things may be different in New Zealand but if you can get them,you won't buy better.Be aware that ND grads can have gentle or sharp graduations(in the decent quality filter systems,anyway).

Hi all, <br>

Has anyone an URL for Hi-Tech filters on hand? A search for Hi-Tech is not going to

get me any sensible info. Thanks! Ferdi.

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