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What's best polarizing filter brand in 2023?

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Thanks about this, I would use it to photograph water on lakes and waterfalls mainly, although for sure the scene has sky, this can be a problem?
 
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I whether never polarization will be a problem with skies and a lens wider than 24mm on a full frame camera will depend on a couple of factors: are you holding the camera horizontally or vertically? If vertically the angle of view across the narrower format dimension will be 2/3rds the angle of the wider dimension.

Which direction is the camera pointing?



How much of the sky is visible?

…and that’s before getting into what you can do with digital post-processing.
 
Normally I shoot vertical, so is it good in this case?

I was wondering many circular polarization filters manufacturers specifically produce filters with an extrathin frame, to reduce vignetting at wide angle (and more expensive too). Why would they do that, if using a polarizing filter with a wide angle results in a blob or unequal sky color?
 
Marketing and not physics ...
 
stillviking said:
Normally I shoot vertical, so is it good in this case?

I was wondering many circular polarization filters manufacturers specifically produce filters with an extrathin frame, to reduce vignetting at wide angle (and more expensive too). Why would they do that, if using a polarizing filter with a wide angle results in a blob or unequal sky color?
Click to expand...
It's a selling point and it allows me people to mount their polarising filters on top of their lens protection filters without having to remove and store filters.

The irregular sky with ultrawide angle lenses comes from the way that skylight is polarised normal to the direction of the sun, so when a polarising filter is aligned towards the sun (even if the sun isn't in the picture) it has minimal effect and when it's aligned at right angles to the sun its effect is a maximum. The effect of a polariser doesn't vary much over small angles to the direction of the polarised light, but a wideangle that can show approaching 90° of the sky will show huge variations in the effect of the polarising filter.
 
stillviking said:
Even to avoid glass / water reflections I need to be 90º to sun?
Click to expand...
No, it's the angle to the glass you worry about. When light polarised in random directions hits the transparent surface of water/air or glass/air, its polarisation is resolved (to an amount depending of the angle of incidence) into directions parallel to and at right angles to the surface. One direction is refracted into the glass/water, the other is reflected and that's why those reflections are polarised and can be filtered out. The sky is polarised in the direction of the sun, and the position of the sun in the sky does change, depending on which way you're facing and the time of day.
 
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No. It’s not that simple or simplistic.

My Gordonian Knot cutting advice: Buy a polarizer from any of the brands mentioned here. All of them are very high quality. When you think using one will help you make a specific photograph better by either reducing the scattered reflected light in the sky or light reflected off the surface of the water or a leaf or whatever you are photographing, try using it. You will quickly get a feel of when it works for you or when it when it doesn’t.

The only two hard and fast rules I follow about using polarizers are:

- I don’t use them with skylight, haze, or UV filters. Why? Because a polarizer does their job as well. Stacking filters unnecessarily can degrade overall image quality

- if Ii want to combine them with a special effects filter (like a Neutral Density (ND) filter), I use the polarizer as the outermost filter.

--
Ellis Vener
To see my work, please visit http://www.ellisvener.com
I am on Instagram @EllisVenerStudio
“It's not about the f-stop." -Jay Maisel
"If art is the destination, craft is how you get there." - Robert Fripp
Don't be 'a photographer. Be photographing. (Paraphrasing William Faulkner advice to writers.)
 
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stillviking said:
Hello,

Looking for the best (that does not worsen the image quality of lens!) polarizing filter to buy for my Canon RF 15-35 2.8. I'm out for market for some years, so, can you please help me what's best brand/model nowadays?

Thank you so much!
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While I have expensive CPL filters, there was a test a few years ago that showed no detectable image quality differences from cheap to expensive. Those mounted in brass (rare) are less likely to bind.

However these filters work poorly on wide angle lenses if there's any meaningful amount of sky in the images. They usually make the image much worse. Recommendation, read up on how they work before spending any money.
 
Abbott Schindler said:
Are you sure you want to use a polarizer with that lens? CPLs won't polarize uniformly across the FoV of an ultrawide. Could be fine at 35mm, but probably unacceptable at much below about 24mm.

As for brands, the ones named are all good. I have some excellent Hoya CPLs, but the high transmission ones I have apparently aren't made anymore.
Click to expand...
And for some reason (if you know, pls chime in), polarizers are even worse with digital sensors compared to film.

With my 24 Nikkor and reversal film sometimes I used to get away with lack of uniformity.

With digital is about to impossible. Possibly from 28mm on.

Nowadays, I almost consistently spare the use of polarizers. I easily do it in PS.

But if you want less reflections and more intense color, one can do a composite frame. I know, a small pita.

But hey! .....
 
Ellis Vener said:
- if Ii want to combine them with a special effects filter (like a Neutral Density (ND) filter), I use the polarizer as the outermost filter.
Click to expand...
Just to add to this: don't stack variable ND filters with circular polarizers. if you use an ND filter with a CP, make sure it's a fixed value ND.
 
Edymagno said:
Abbott Schindler said:
Are you sure you want to use a polarizer with that lens? CPLs won't polarize uniformly across the FoV of an ultrawide. Could be fine at 35mm, but probably unacceptable at much below about 24mm.

As for brands, the ones named are all good. I have some excellent Hoya CPLs, but the high transmission ones I have apparently aren't made anymore.
Click to expand...
And for some reason (if you know, pls chime in), polarizers are even worse with digital sensors compared to film.

With my 24 Nikkor and reversal film sometimes I used to get away with lack of uniformity.

With digital is about to impossible. Possibly from 28mm on.

Nowadays, I almost consistently spare the use of polarizers. I easily do it in PS.

But if you want less reflections and more intense color, one can do a composite frame. I know, a small pita.

But hey! .....
Click to expand...
Digital sensors require a “circular” polarizer. For film linear polarizers work just as well .
 
TwoMetreBill said:
Edymagno said:
Abbott Schindler said:
Are you sure you want to use a polarizer with that lens? CPLs won't polarize uniformly across the FoV of an ultrawide. Could be fine at 35mm, but probably unacceptable at much below about 24mm.

As for brands, the ones named are all good. I have some excellent Hoya CPLs, but the high transmission ones I have apparently aren't made anymore.
Click to expand...
And for some reason (if you know, pls chime in), polarizers are even worse with digital sensors compared to film.

With my 24 Nikkor and reversal film sometimes I used to get away with lack of uniformity.

With digital is about to impossible. Possibly from 28mm on.

Nowadays, I almost consistently spare the use of polarizers. I easily do it in PS.

But if you want less reflections and more intense color, one can do a composite frame. I know, a small pita.

But hey! .....
Click to expand...
Digital sensors require a “circular” polarizer. For film linear polarizers work just as well .
Click to expand...
 
No. Already analoge cameras with modern ttl meters need circular since linear filters would screw up the exposute measurment.
 
That too.
 
Ellis Vener said:
I have not tested to see if the autofocus system in mirrorless cameras require a circular polarizer. If you know of an authoritative source that has tested both types of polarizers with MILCs I’d be interested to see it.
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I am not an authoritative source on the topic, but I happen to own an old liner polarizer. It works fine on my R5 (likely R7 too for same reason). I don't run into any odd metering or focusing issues at any orientation

I don't use it much though. The main issue is that no one seems to make any with modern optics or coating, so while I would love them to come back, good ones aren't in the market when compared to their CPL counterparts. Maybe one day, when all mirrors are gone from use
 
VisuallyOriented said:
I would be careful shopping for filters by brand name alone. Many/most of the sellers of filters sell different grades/lines of filters and some of the best known sellers sell some mediocre or even poor quality filters in their "economy" lines.

There are some videos available where people have actually tested various filters. I would consider those tests as better info than brand name alone.
Click to expand...
Exactly as with tires for cars. Michelin makes some of the best tires but also some crappy ones. Same with Bridgestone.
 
B+w ksm (käsemann) are high transmission ones.
 
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