Drop in 52mm Filter for f/2.8 300mm - Screw vs Gel II

Chris Mak wrote:

BigBen08 wrote:

I did a search and my post has some errors. The photographer was talking about his 500 II lens, not the 300 II. He claims the screw in filter when used with a tc results in decreased sharpness. But hey, that's just one person's opinion.

My experience with the screw filter holder has been very good. I have a hard time believing Canon would design a screw type filter holder that decreases lens performance.

I have the 400DOII and on the Canon website, with the 52mm screw in filter holder, the 400DOII is specifically mentioned as one of the compatible lenses. The new 400 and 600mm mkIII lenses are supplied from the factory with the screw-in filter holder.

I bought the 52mm screw in filter holder, because I want the freedom to use other (better) filters than the Canon supplied stock filter. When I shot the Sigma 500mm f4.5 and the Pentax 560mm f5.6, I also experimented with different filters and also with leaving the filter out. With the Pentax DA560 in particular, I got best results with no filter at all in place. With the Sigma, best results were with a filter in place, and after some experimenting, I find that the 400DOII also performs best with a filter in the holder. Leaving the filter out results in a small focus shift, and even though the super telelenses that I tried all performed fine without a filter in place, it is also dependant on the circumstances in which you are shooting, The biggest impact of the drop-in filter seems to arise when shooting in very bright midday light with the sun at a near 90 degrees angle to the camera/lens. All sorts of artifacts are enhanced in my experience, and it will be dependant on the quality of the filter.

About the filters as such, I do not like the glass in the gelatine filter holder very much, and found the 52mm drop-in filter with the supplied Canon 52mm protect filter "better". As filters all have their unique impact on the resulting images, depending on the light circumstances, it is a subjective issue more than a technical one it seems. I settled on a B+W 007 clear filter though, which has great clarity and seems to add to a certain "3D" rendering. I look at sharpness, clarity, but also possible effect on bokeh, neutral color rendering and fine detail resolution. I find that in general, there is very much an attitude towards drop-in filters, that the manufacturer (of these very expensive super telelenses) should know best, and best IQ and perfomance should always be with the supplied stock filter, but I like to test the effect of filters on IQ myself, and mostly by using my own eyes to see which I find to give the best rendering and performance for my needs. The small 52mm threaded filters are not that expensive, so it may pay off to try one or two out to see which works best for you.

Chris

Thank you for writing Chris. Best, Tony