Filters

cbmazur

I just bought a few filters, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about them, are they quality, will I be disappointed with any of them? Here is what I got.

1 - Tiffen Polarizer
1- Hoya Natural Denesity (ND4)
1 - Tiffen 25 Red 1
1 - Asanumam Yellow K2
1 - Vivitar Light Green No. 11
3 - Tiffen Magnigiers (+1, +2, +4)

Are any of these just junk or are they all OK filters for what I might use them for. Thanks guy.

GraphyFotoz

cbmazur wrote:

I just bought a few filters, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about them, are they quality, will I be disappointed with any of them? Here is what I got.

1 - Tiffen Polarizer
1- Hoya Natural Denesity (ND4)
1 - Tiffen 25 Red 1
1 - Asanumam Yellow K2
1 - Vivitar Light Green No. 11
3 - Tiffen Magnigiers (+1, +2, +4)

Are any of these just junk or are they all OK filters for what I might use them for. Thanks guy.

If your just starting out they will do for now.
Tiffen many years ago were my choice filters.
But they don't really rank as top quality anymore IMHO.
All I use anymore are B+W (Made in Germany) and High end Hoya (Pro-1 and Super HMC...ect)
Pays to spend a few $$ on a Quality Circ Polarizer.
As far as filter you won't use often like the ND Hoya will work fine.
Red Yellow and Green are for IR or B&W mostly if your gonna do this type of photography?
Vivitar in anything other than a flash is junk.
The magnifier +1,+2,+4 are pretty much a waste of time.
I never had much luck with em.
If macro photography gets your juices flowing....save and get a good quality Macro lens in the future.
Canon 100mm or a Sigma 105mm and some extention tubes.

When I 1st started I went cheap on my Lenses and Filters....but ya learn fast!
Ya get what you pay for...I was told this ahead of time by many....they were right.

claudermilk

Probably the best-quality one you have there is the Hoya Neutral Density filter. Tiffens are not well-thought-of in general, and I concur with the Vivitar sentiment: stick to flashes, that's what they do well & not much else.

I don't recall if you're shooting a digital body or not. If so, the color filters are pointless as their effects can be done (and with more control) in post-procesing. For digital, pretty much all you need to look at are CPL, ND, and UV. If you're doing IR, possibly one of the IR filters depending on the conversion done to the body.

I also agree on the magnifiers. If you want to get into macro, just buy a macro lens. They aren't all that expensive ($200-400 range).

For future reference, the filters you want to look at are Heliopan, B+W, and Hoya (in that order of quality & generally price). For B+W and Hoya, you can get them through maxsaver at http://hvstar.net/ for a very good price. Oh, and stick with the MRC filters, avoid non-multi-coated.

One thing I keep pointing out with filters is this: we all spend so much time agonizing over the very best lens to get and dump a ton of money on the best we can afford. Now that we have that perfect lens, why cheap out on the filter we're going to put in front of it? It just throws away all the effort spent choosing and saving up for the lens.