How to select Cir. Polarizer Lens? Need advice

[andrew_teo86]

May i ask, what do your usually shoot that requires a Cir pol? Its so useless and expensive that i just sold of my PRO 1 DIGITAL. Though many magazine said that it can help you get blue skies, ND grad can do an even better job ah. What difference is there with cheap and expensive polarizer that amatures can spot?

 

[AirWayBu]

andrew_teo86, thanks. Share your sentiments about getting cheap CPL if one cannot spot the diff. My theory, when in doubt, buy the cheapest.

However, IMHO, CPL and GND serve different needs altogether. The former remove non-metalic reflections, while the latter reduces the exposure differences in the same pic. For CPL to work, once also need to use it correctly (e.g. 30 deg to the subject, e.g. 90 deg from sun, etc). Just a newbie, just sharing what I have read.

 

[ExplorerZ]

May i as what do your usually shoot that requires a Cir pol? Its so useless and expensive that i just sold of my PRO 1 DIGITAL. Though many magazine said that it can help you get blue skies, ND grad can do an even better job ah. What difference is there with cheap and expensive polarizer that amatures can spot?

GND is only useful for landscape, if you are shooting a building and sky as background, a GND will also darken part of the building as well, making it unnatural. and further more a GND can be used to reduce reflection from the glass, water, leaves... which a GND is incapable of.

as for quality, I have basically used a few different brand. namely the Hoya, Tokina and Marumi.. all of them are alright for normal use(no color cast or significant degradation of image quality) but the main different between Hoya, Tokina and Marumi are basically just price and coating. IIRC the Tokina and Hoya ain't coated (I didn't get the HMC), making it less resistant to flare when under strong direct light. Other than that the higher price for Marumi is for the slim-profile as well (nearly 1/2 as thick as the normal ones)

 

[ExplorerZ]

GND is only useful for landscape, if you are shooting a building and sky as background, a GND will also darken part of the building as well, making it unnatural. and further more a GND can be used to reduce reflection from the glass, water, leaves... which a GND is incapable of.

as for quality, I have basically used a few different brand. namely the Hoya, Tokina and Marumi.. all of them are alright for normal use(no color cast or significant degradation of image quality) but the main different between Hoya, Tokina and Marumi are basically just price and coating. IIRC the Tokina and Hoya ain't coated (I didn't get the HMC), making it less resistant to flare when under strong direct light. Other than that the higher price for Marumi is for the slim-profile as well (nearly 1/2 as thick as the normal ones)

here is a example of what a CPL can do and nothing else is able to get that effect
they were shot merely a few second from each other

without

with