Not happy with my Tiffen Circular Polarizer

[scott_rushing]

Hello all. Thanks for reading this. A year or so ago I bought a Tiffen

circular polarizer to use with my Nikon D70 and lens. I've used it more than a

few times and I have to admit that I'm not real happy with the results. It does

OK and I can tell that its working as I rotate the filter and see a small change

in the sky but I have never gotten a real deep blue out of any photos I have

taken with it. I'm heading to a balloon festival next weekend and I was thinking

maybe I should replace it with one of better quality. I know, it could just

be that none of my skies were deep blue but I am pretty sure they were more blue

that showed up in the resulting photo. I know some of that I can fix in

Photoshop but if I'm going to bother to use a filter, it should be a good one.

I went with Tiffen originally mainly because it got decent reviews as a

manufacturer and because of price. I was just starting out and having spent

quite a bit on the D70 and lens, tripod, etc, I just didn't want to drop

$100-$200 on a filter. But now that it's been months since I bought anything

dealing with photography, I'm thinking maybe this is a smart move.

 

Anyone have any thoughts on the Tiffen and what might be a better alternative?

 

Thanks

[User_276104]

My main Circular Polarizer is a Tiffen; I've had a Hoya in the past and I never noticed any big difference between them.

 

Someone else out there will surely know better than me - I've not seen any discussion about the quality of the polarization, mostly just the glass quality or coating. Some people rag on Tiffen and swear by B&W and Hoya.

[liljuddakalilknyttphotogra]

Two better alternatives - no experience with the Tiffen....

 

1, Singh Ray (they have several kinds check their website) great filters though expensive. eBay's a possibility as well as here now & then.

 

2, Nikon - I have two Nikon & like especially the old type I - I feel the thin one is harder to work & easier to put fingerprints on. Though, difficult as you will run into issues with the lens caps.

 

Nikon can be bought off eBay as well as on line places like here & Adorama etc etc

 

Used to own a B&W & it separated & was unusable. So these days I only recommend the Nikon & Singh Ray as those are the ones & only ones I use now. Will not recommend something I've not used.

 

Lil

[jerowerdink]

B+W makes a great filters, as does Singh-Ray (but very expensive). I have 3 B+W circ-pol and they all have been excellent.

[alan_olander1664878205]

You will get the greatest polarization only if you are shooting at 90 degrees to the sun. Other directions will not give the maximum effect. I don't think a different brand filter will do any more for you. As Eric said, the difference is in the quality of the glass and not the effect it gives.

[ronald_moravec1]

You need a good blue sky without a lot of atmospheric haze like there is in the midwest

and eastern USA 99 % of the time. It may look blue to you, but it is not. Trust me. New

Mexico will be much better and after you spend some time there, you will appreciate the

true blue sky.

 

Most od the USA sky is poluted with the exhaust from the 4000 jet airplanes that are in

the air on average at any given time, If you were observant for the month after 9/11, you

would have noticed the sky turned deep blue after a few days and stayed that way for 30

days until they started flying the jets again, The sky has not been the same since except

for a few scattered days preceeded by several days of high winds.

 

Since winds blow from west to east, the SW is not plagued with the problem.

 

Again, the most effect from the pola is at 90 deg to the sun rays. Therefore the sun needs

to be at your right, left, overhead, or somewhere on that arc.

 

Balloons are launched sunup and sundown when the winds are most calm so this is not at

problem.

 

Enjoy your trip and post some balloon pics with your deep blue skies.

[brad_haeger]

I use a Tiffen on my d70 too and get good deep blue skies. The deepest blue really comes out when I?m shooting to the north at a 45 degree angle to the sun. Good luck with the balloons!!!

[JDMvW]

As several have already pointed out, conditions and angles make a big difference. Other polarizers may be optically better than the Tiffen, but my guess is that they won't produce any better effect. Get a Cokin style holder and invest in some graduated neutral density filters. If you just want to see if it works, try places like Fotodiox ( http://www.fotodiox.com ) that sell knock-off for very good prices. If you like the effect and it works for you, then think about spending more for the really expensive versions that so many on this website love ;)

[leicaglow]

Since there are two pieces of glass with a polarizer, you need one with optically parallel lenses. Maybe it's off. It's why I use Nikon polarizers as much as possible--after a friend in the optics business clued me in on the issue.

[dwight200]

You can test the quality of the polarizer (distinct from the quality of the glass) by holding a pair of polarizing sunglasses in front of the polarizer and rotating one of them. You should be able to find an orientation where you get very little light through. Note that if you turn the circular polarizer around so you're looking through the other side at the sunglasses, there should be little change. This is because a circular polarizer starts out with an ordinary polarizer on the outside (facing the subject) and a quarter wave plate on the inside (facing the camera) which converts polarized light to circularly polarized light, which looks unpolarized as far as reflections off mirror surfaces are concerned (which is important for proper operation of your DSLR).

 

If you have an LCD monitor on your computer, try looking at that through your polarizer.

 

It's possible, although I've never heard of it before, that the filter was put into the ring backwards. This would give you a negligible change in sky darkness as you rotate the filter.

 

Sky light is polarized by scattering, and the light scattered at 90 degrees is most highly polarized. The sky light near the sun or directly opposite the sun is almost completely unpolarized. If you're shooting subjects with the sun behind you, you will see no change in the sky light.

[walterh]

Excellent quality from B+W.

 

Try to get a store to let you compare your filter with a B+W for a few shots outside and in the store. Often it is not the fault of the filter but unexperienced user .-)

 

The better quality will most likely not give better filtering but better optical quality and fewer reflections. You might also appreciate the high mechanical quality.

[scott_rushing]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I'll do some shooting today and make sure I try different angles from the sun and see how that works. Maybe since I live in the East I'll only get light blue skies but we'll see. I'll let you know what I find out and whether I venture to get another filter.

[Jerry_]

Are you going "wide-angle" with your polarizer images?

 

 

 

 

If yes, keep in mind that a circular polarizer filter does not really give good results at 12mm or 14mm __ too much sky for even effect of the circular polarizer filter.

[joseph_smith3]

I agree with Gerald's post and extend his comments to focal lenghts up to an including 24-28mm. For just enhancing blue skies where you want even enhancement across the sky, a polarizer often is the wrong filter to use. I have found that a good quality strong warming filter like a B+W KR 3, about an 81C, works better than a polarizer and its effect is even across the sky. It also works if a lot of clouds are in the sky. And if you are at high elevations, it even works better. And I use it with a digital SLR too.

 

I do use my Singh Ray polarizer if I want to enhance clouds in a blue sky but am very cautious with it when I have a wide angle lens or zoom lens set to a wide position on my camera. If I were going to buy a new polarizer, I would buy the Singh Ray LB warming polarizer in the sprocket mount size to fit the Cokin P holder. I would buy the the newer wide angle version of the Cokin P holder, that holds only one filter to prevent any vignetting as you turn the polarizer when used with wide angle lenses/zooms. This way one polarizer will fit all of your lenses. This wide angle holder does not come with any attaching rings, so you will have to buy the attaching rings for your lenses separately.

 

http://www.singh-ray.com/polarizers.html

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/302175-REG/Cokin_BPW700_Wide_Angle_Filter_Holder.html

 

Joe Smith

[ofey_kalakar]

To get a deep blue. Do the following. adjust your apreture to the highest f stop (22). Point

the camera into the sky. Rotate the polarizer with your preview button depressed (this

enables the apreture) until it is the darkest or desired level of light. I'm assuming you will

point the camera in the general direction of were you will be taking your photo. You can test

this method indoors by pointing at a light source and rotating your polarizer.

Good Luck!<div></div>

[peter_sturtivant]

Just a quicky. Plarisers dont come with an anti-reflection coating. It negates the polarising effect.

[walterh]

Peter this is new to me. What about e.g. MRC multi-coating of the B+W filters?

[scott_rushing]

For me, no I wasn't specifically working with wide angle lenses, mostly 40-120mm range usually. But I'll keep that in mind. Its not been too clear here to get much of a chance to practice, but nearer the end of the week we should see some blue skies.

 

I hadn't thought about usin a warming filter, as I have one of those as well. I'll test that too. Thanks for the suggestion

 

S

[glyn r]

I have used Hoya CPL and been pleased. I find the very cheap filters give a colour cast. I used Tiffen ND grads and found them very good. In diffuse light the effects can be small. The effect is only strong in a very limited area at 90 degrees to the sun.

[tanveer_malik]

<p>Hi Guys ..<br>

I am about to buy a CP. Choices are Hoya or Tiffen. Please suggest. I will be thankfull.</p>