ultra polarizer

T

translumination

Active member
I'm wondering is there a dramatic difference between tiffen's ultrapol or schneider's tru-pol polarizers and the ordinary polarizers. On their websites they show demo pictures to compare and it looks quite dramatically better but I wonder what people's experiences have been? What about those from Lee or Formatt, how do they compare to the ultra or tru pol.
 
Re: ultra polarizer

As you will see from the way I sign this, I work for Schneider Optics.

Both the Schneider Tru-Pol, which was introduced first and the Tiffen Ultra Pol use a higher quality Polizer matierial between the glass (neither Schneider or Tiffen or any of the manufacturers make the actual material, companies like polariod, 3M etc do). This results in a polarizer that will more completely kill reflections, darken skies etc than the standard polarizers.

Whether this improvement is a real advantage to you and worth the extra cost is a question only you can answer. Do note that you can always reduce the effect of the polarizer if you have a Tru-Pol or Ultra Pol by rotating back a bit from the point of greatest effect.

For instance you may want weak reflections on windows to make it realistic, where no pola would have reflections so strong that you couldn't see the action thru them, and totally killing the reflections would make it look like there was no glass at all--phoney.

You cannot of course get more out of the less efficient ones, you can reduce the effect of the more efficient polas .

It will be interesting to hear from some users on this subject.

Bill Turner
Century Division
Schneider Optics
 
Re: ultra polarizer

Bill - Good information. That would sell me on the Tru-Pol (or Ultra) versus a regular polarizer.
 
Re: ultra polarizer

I have the Tru-Pol and love it. I used to have a cheap polarizer and the difference is real and, in some cases, dramatic.

Bill, I have a question for you. I'm looking to get some other filters for my camera (XL2) and I'm torn. What's keeping me from ordering them is I feel like I should get a matte box and "real" 4x4 filters, however the price point for this stuff is staggering to me. It would be soooo much cheaper to just get screw on filters, but I don't want to waste money in the long term by spending my dollars foolishly now. Any thoughts? Also, I saw some stuff shot with a Tiffen Black Pro Mist and a Warm Tiffen Black Pro Mist and I liked the results. Does Schneider have equivalent filters and, if so, what are they?

Thanks,

Matt
 
Re: ultra polarizer

The nice thing about 4x4 filters is that most local film rental houses also rent filters. Owning a 4x4 matte box means you just have to rent whatever filters you need for that day at a fraction of their purchase price.
 
Re: ultra polarizer

Yeah, renting filters is a very viable option, but so is renting a mattebox, in case you don't have the $$ to spend right now. Of course, in some cases, renting is not a viable option (Some people, me included, work productions with their own gear because sometimes they have to get stuff without notice, and without the big bucks, you can't rent equipment on short notice - That's why you can see an "unlit" interview setup of mine posted on another topic).

But filters and a mattebox are certainly not my main concern. Renting them is very viable and most of the times is worth the rates big time.
 
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