filter gear

Keep getting this page when I click on filter recommendations?

No information on this page? Was looking for info on filter types, usage, recommendations for beginners, etc. Thanks!

Are we going to see this page with some content? All your other pages are fantastic and i would really appreciate the recommendations!

Let’s start making content. This is off the top of my head, unplanned, but here goes…

Filters are great things. They allow you to color your light, limit your light, but in the end they are light modifiers. Most of us have the round filters – UV, Polarizing, Warming, Neutral Density, etc. For these, I favor Hoya (I would favor B & W, but they are a bit out of my price range). I use Tiffens also, but don’t like the color cast I get from them. I’m a big fan of Hoya’s consistency. They also own Pentax and are known for their vision lenses. Little thing I just found out.

I also use Cokin rectangular filters, using adapters to fit the filter holder, which generally holds neutral density or graduated neutral density (GND) filters. These allow me to capture things like waterfalls in daytime at relatively long exposures giving my photos that milky white texture.

I’ve recently gotten into Formatt-HiTech for their rectangular filters. These work great. I picked up a 4 stop GND for about $18USD on Amazon. These filters have typically run much higher, so I snatched this one.

Victor Maldonado, a friend of mine and published Photographer/Instructor told me he never leaves home without his B&W warming polarizer filter. This is a round filter, and I have been using the Hoya Moose’s warming / polarizing filter (81A+polarizer) on my 58mm thread 50mm. It works great. I just ordered one for my 67mm thread 17-50mm lens, which I use for most of my landscape photography (the 50 I use for portraits and puppies/kittens).

One last thing. There are a lot of filters out there and you can go broke trying every one. On my last trip to Iceland, I wisely rented filters I needed along with the Canon 10-22mm lens I was shooting. It gave me a chance to try the filter, which turned out to be a Hoya for $7 for two weeks. It was a steal (I have no 77mm thread lenses, so it was a real deal for me not having to buy a filter I wouldn’t use afterwards).

This brings me to the last point.

Notice how I keep throwing out thread size (58mm, 67mm, 77mm). These do matter with round filters. Get the wrong one and you need to invest in step-up / step-down rings (a major pain and one more thing to carry).

Learn your filter thread sizes. It’s on your lens and will likely be anything from 49mm to 77mm, although there are extremes such as the kit lens which came with my Sony a6000 – it was “wait for it” – 40.5mm. I’ve never heard of such a thread size, so to use filters on it, I either need to get REAL lucky and find a 40.5mm filter that doesn’t throw ugly color casts, or I can get a step-up ring to the 49mm size, for which I have filters. That’s the way I took it.

Small subject. Lots to know. It all gets to knowing your camera, knowing your lenses, knowing how you want to modify light, if at all (e.g., UV filters don’t modify light, but can clarify hazy conditions a bit…most people just use them to protect their lenses).

So, that’s my two cents on filters, and I hope you got a little more than that in value.