UV / Haze filter: clarification + recommendations

T

thabo

Well-known member
Wondering what the benefit are of a haze / UV combo filter. I'm going to be shooting sever weather for two weeks and wonder if it will help with the clarity of "long shots". I hear the haze filter will add a pink tinge too?

Here are some options at B&H: (what about the B+W 43mm UV Haze 010 F-Pro Filter ??- not quite sure what the 010 number means)
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?fi=null&ci=112&N=4289364520+4294955273
I don't really have the budget for anything over $50.

Secondly I have a cheapy UV / Lens protector / clear filter on my HMC40, I noticed that the specs says that it's NOT multi-coated, does this really matter as I don't think I can see any difference with it on or off and don't see any flare either? I could in theory dump the cheap UV filter and use the haze / UV filter instead?

I was also looking for some gradient filters 43mm for the HMC40 - any recommendations, perhaps these only work with a mattbox?
 
So if you go with the B+W, you get a Schott glass filter (that is likely multicoated), then you have 1) a nice piece of optical glass that shouldn't have any detectable distortions, and 2) you will have coating that should hold up under a wide range of environmental conditions over time.

Multicoating on eyepiece optics means that all air surfaces are coated (as opposed to fully coated or coated). Coatings will protect the filter on the substrate and will kill the reflections. So multicoating is a good thing. Also, a quality coating will withstand quite a bit (among other things, there is a coating standard that includes moderate rubbing with a number 2 pencil eraser).

Coatings, especially narrow band coatings like UV, IR block, et al, have a fairly high rejection rate in the manufacturing process. This is one reason that your higher quality filters and lenses cost more. Another reason is the glass quality. Schott Glass is one of the very few companies in the world (perhaps 3 total) that have rated optical glass stock. This means that their optical glass stock of various compositions are graded very specifically for things like optical throughput, refraction index, etc. Telescope, eyepiece, and other lens manufacturers use them because they are a defined standard in optical glass.

The second filter I would always get after the UV filter is the polarizing filter. It will even help with the haze.
 
Actually, I would still get the polarizing filter before the ND filter. You may find that you don't need the ND filter after that. Part of the problem with bright light is glare and the polarizing filter knocks that out as well as bringing the light down a bit. It may not bring it down 1.3 stops, but brute force reduction of the light isn't necessarily the solution if you still have glare.

I shoot in a lot of very bright situations (especially those in west Texas!). My polarizing filter does a great job and really makes the contrast and colors look far more vibrant. It probably only reduces stuff by, say, 0.5, but it doesn't look bright when the colors are good (not washed out) and the glare is gone.

Get the polarizing filter before the ND. You won't regret it and it will be far more usable in a wider range of situations.
 
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