Hi,
A few weeks ago I won an eBay auction which consists of 15 filters. I
noticed that the description mentioned 2 circular polarizers (49mm and
55mm), and therefore I "decided to win it". :)
The parcel has now arrived and much to my surprise, it was much better than
what I bargained for, as all of the filters have brands and a lot of them
are from well known brands (Hoya, Tiffen, Vivitar). Fortunately the
descriptions at the time were vague and didn't include any brand names, so I
won the auction at $37 and got the parcel for some $42 when including the
additional shipping costs.
Now, I have some questions about some of these filters and was hoping that
(one of) you might be able to answer them, so I'll treat each one separately
and ask questions or make a small comment. Here goes (all descriptions are
taken literally from the filter ring):
-Quantaray 49mm Y2 Japan (yellow)
-Quantaray 55mm Y2 Japan (yellow)
-HCE 49mm green 1 Japan
I think these are only used for contrast enhancement in b/w photography, but
do they also have a use in colour photography (other than pop filter type
usage)?
Also, are these brands any good?
-Tiffen 49mm enhancing filter made in U.S.A. (blue/purple/grey-ish)
This filter is the one which most intrigues me, I checked both the
www.photofilter.com site and the Tiffen site and the only enhancing filters
I came across were the didymium ones. This filter (when looking through it)
indeed intensifies tones of red (most noticeably so in red, orange and
pink), whereas other colours are less intensified. However, when I compare
the colour of this filter with the pictures of Tiffen didymium filters, the
colour doesn't match. Mine is a weird colour which is a bit difficult to
describe, it most closely resembles some sort of mixture between blue,
purple and gray, rather than the more clearish colour of the Tiffen filters
in the pictures. Can anybody tell me some more about this filter?
-Hoya 49mm 81A Japan
What luck! After some private e-mail exchanges with Greg Logiodice I decided
to pursue the 81 series filters in 49mm and 55mm format, so getting a Hoya
49mm 81A is a nice bonus.
-Hoya 49mm 85B Japan
The Hoya page says:
"These are color conversion filters for the use of tungsten type color
films in daylight. 85 decreases the color temperature from 5500°K to 3400°K
for the use of Type A color films. 85B decreases the color temperature from
5500°K to 3200°K for the use of Type B color films.
85C decreases the color temperature from 5500°K to 3800°K.
The effect obtained is the same as with daylight type color films used
in daylight."
Which doesn't sound like a filter that's used very often, however, I was
wondering if anyone knows of an alternative usage of this filter, like e.g.
can be done with the 81 series filters by using them as warming filters?
-Promaster spectrum 7 cir polarizer 49mm Japan
-Hoya 55mm PL Japan
-Optex circular PL 55mm Japan
An open and shut case. These filters were the main reason I bought the
batch, the rest of the filters were considered nice extras. So there are two
circular polarizers and there is 1 (Hoya) linear polarizer. Can anyone tell
me anything about the Promaster and Optex brands?
-Quantaray 55mm UV Japan (blurred)
A strange one, it appears to be a regular UV filter of which one side of the
glass has melted. The filter itself doesn't look hazy, just blurred. The
glass most closely resembles the outside of a spot filter, but the blurring
is much stronger. Does anyone know of any such filter (e.g. for creating
soft, out of focus effects), or do you think some sort of accident happened
to it? Hans said that it's probably a diffuser, which sounds fair enough, as
the filter ring etc. doesn't look like it has been subject to heat or any
other form of abuse.
-Vivitar 49mm cross screen Japan
I haven't yet tested this one on a lens, but it looks very similar to a
4-star filter. Unfortunately it doesn't have a rotating ring to better
decide the orientation of the diffraction. The only way to change that would
be to partially unscrew the filter from the lens' filter thread.
Nevertheless it's a Vivitar, so that's not too bad.
12-Telesar 49mm spot Japan
A filter which I will probably only use a few times, it is of the "soft
spot" type (i.e. it blurs the background whilst maintaining a sharp centre
spot). Is anyone familiar with the Telesar brand?
-Vivitar Japan close-up lens 49mm no.1 coated
-Vivitar Japan close-up lens 49mm no.2 coated
-Vivitar Japan close-up lens 49mm no.4 coated
3 close-up lenses; a while ago I bought a 50/3.5 macro lens which is still
due to arrive, so I doubt I'll use the lenses a lot, but can anyone tell me
if they give a decent quality?
O.k., these were the most important questions I wanted to ask. However there
are two more "brand questions" I'd like to ask: can anyone tell me anything
about the quality of:
-Prinz circular polarizer (72mm)
-Rolev 81A and 81B warming filters
Thanks a lot in advance, and I hope anyone can provide some answers,
especially about the Tiffen enhancer.
Cheers!
Olafo
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