Lars
Active member
Has anyone experienced actual loss of resolution from using a cheap optical glass filter?
This is a serious question.
While coating certainly differentiates filters, I have yet to try a glass filter that actually is optically inferior WRT refraction properties.
Perhaps I have not put my mind to it... I have compared Heliopan, B+W, Hoya, Kenko, Tiffen, and recently Zomei and Luzid, using tele and wide lenses.
In all cases, adding a filter resulted in zero loss of resolving power on my Nikon D810 36 MP FF sensor.
I have also slapped all kinds of filters on my 8x10 - so far all filters seem great optically.
Just curious... what are we actually paying for in a B+W or Heliopan filter (I have many).
Granted, I have avoided sub-$10 filters.
So here's a challenge: How cheap can you go before encountering a truly optically bad filter?
Ignore coating for this discussion. Anecdotes welcome (but if you just want to brag about your B+W filters then you sorta miss the point here - this is about cheap, bad filters).
This is a serious question.
While coating certainly differentiates filters, I have yet to try a glass filter that actually is optically inferior WRT refraction properties.
Perhaps I have not put my mind to it... I have compared Heliopan, B+W, Hoya, Kenko, Tiffen, and recently Zomei and Luzid, using tele and wide lenses.
In all cases, adding a filter resulted in zero loss of resolving power on my Nikon D810 36 MP FF sensor.
I have also slapped all kinds of filters on my 8x10 - so far all filters seem great optically.
Just curious... what are we actually paying for in a B+W or Heliopan filter (I have many).
Granted, I have avoided sub-$10 filters.
So here's a challenge: How cheap can you go before encountering a truly optically bad filter?
Ignore coating for this discussion. Anecdotes welcome (but if you just want to brag about your B+W filters then you sorta miss the point here - this is about cheap, bad filters).