Have you ever worn a good pair of polarized sunglasses (RayBan, Maui Jim, Revo H20s) and looked at the beautiful shallow water of South Florida? Then you understand the incredible impact polarization has on what you see. If you haven't worn polarized sun glasses before, go to your local CVS Pharmacy or food store and buy a pair of cheap Foster Grants - you will be truly amazed! Instead of just seeing the bright shiney surface of the water, you will acutally see into the water and the color will magically turn an incredible hue of aqua green or deep intense blue.
A Polarizing filter for your camera is one of the few accessories necessary for outdoor photography, because you typically can not recreate their enoumous impact in photo software, such as PS Elements. When you take a picture of blue sky or water in bright sun, almost always the picture will look somewhat "flat," no matter what camera you use. The water surface will be very reflective and shiney and the sky will be a very anemic light blue, almost white.
There are two types of polarizing filters, linear (less expensive) and circular (more expensive). The TZ3 and FZ18 work fine with the linear polarizer. A circular polarizer is only required for certain SLRs/DSLRs with light meters and focusing systems that rely on half-silvered mirrors or prisms. If you are buying one filter to fit several cameras, buy the circular, otherwise linear is just as good. A circular polarizer can always be substituted for a linear polarizer, but not vice versa. A polarizer typically reduces the amount of light through the lens (good thing in bright sun) and also results in a bit of color shift.
For P&S, more important than circular versus linear, is the optical quality of the glass and type of metal used for the threads; sometimes you do get what you pay for. Recently I purchased a heliopan (german) SH-PMC ES 46 Lightfilter (slim) from B&H Photo.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/399985-REG/Heliopan_704640_46mm_SH_PMC_Circular_Polarizer.html
This was a very, very pricey filter at $97 before S&H, but the filter is mutlicoated and uses brass for the treads. If you have every tried to remove a cheap filter that has been mounted for a long time, you understand the benefit of brass threads. I also can attest to the quality of the glass and multicoating, because it worked shooting directly into the sun at sunset (no weird star patterns or reflections). Others say B+W Schneider are also top shelf filters and you can also get good quality filters for Hoya, Tiffen and Kenko. Good filter sources include:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ http://www.2filter.com/
Overall, I'm very pleased with the heliopan, but even though it is a slim (ES designation) filter, it does vingette the corners ever so slightly at the wide end of the TZ3 (28mm). Cheers, Kevin.
2 comments:
Hello. I too have the tz3 and was wondering if/how you attach your filter to your camera.
I've just got an fz-18 and I'm starting from scratch in the world of photography. How do you go about finding and fiting filters- is it by their thread or do most shops do it by make and type of camera? I think it you use the thread, but I could be wrong. Any help appreciated :)
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