Decent polariser?

[Fozzybear]

I've got one of the cheap Hoya polarisers (marked PL-CIR, it came in a blue box with a yellow stripe) and have noticed some minor vignetting with it along with a colour shift as I rotate it. I'm wondering about the 'decent' polarisers, like the hoya pro-1d which I think have a thinner body so shouldn't vignette, but are they worth the money or is it just a case of trinkets for the lads? ;)

I've seen a Pro1 D hoya and Marumi polarisers in CameraWorld in town, but I don't know if Marumi are any good or not - it's about £45 for one compared to £80+ for a Hoya...

[puddleduck]

The Kenko Pro 1 is the same thing as the Hoya (Hoya is known as Kenko in Japan and some of Asia) and its 50% the price of the better known brand (actually the Hoya filter even says Kenko in small print on the back of the packaging ;))

Its very good, no vignetting even at 12mm on something like a Tokina 12-24.

The "colour shift" might just be normal, increasing saturation is kind of the point...?

Murami is fine too, its a well known Japanense brand, you'll find it in any Tokyo camera store.

[Fozzybear]

The "colour shift" might just be normal, increasing saturation is kind of the point...?


Well, yes I do realise that, I'm talking about a shift in the whole scene's colour - trying to remember back to when I used polarisers on my film SLRs I don't remember that rotating it introduced a rather strong warm look in the viewfinder, it just boosted saturation. Do you see this with your pol's?

[puddleduck]

I use C-Pols all the time and I can't say I've ever noticed a colour shift.

Is is possible you have one of those "warming" CPLs?

[Fozzybear]

I've no idea, it's just a bog-standard basic c-pol. I've heard that some cheap ones can introduce colour shifts so am assuming that is the case with this.

I've got a really cheap hama c-pol that does seem to be a warming one - putting my regular c-pol in front of my LCD monitor and rotating it I see the image on the screen appear and then go black, but with the other one I don't see a change in brightness just a shift from a blue colour bias to a warmer bias.

The only way I'll find out is to spend some money I guess - at the very least I can find a c-pol that won't vignette.

Cheers Andy.