Advice on Polarizers

[Photog38]

I have been thinking of buying a circular polarizer and I have a couple of questions.

1) I have heard good things about warming polarizers and kaeseman polarizers, but what is the real difference between the two and can you recommend one over the other?

2) So far, my largest lens is 67mm. Should I get a 77mm polarizer and use step up rings so that I would be able to use it on any lens that I would probably ever own, or is it better to buy a filter that is the same size as your lens?

Also, are there any brands that I should stay away from?

 

[blash]

I'm not sure what a kaeseman polarizer would be - link please?

A warming circular polarizer is simply a circular polarizer with a warming filter built-in so you only need to mount 1 filter instead of 2 (which, depending on the lens, can lead to vignetting). For digital cameras, warming is unnecessary at the filter level because of Photoshop.

A lot of people would recommend you to do just that, with the step-up rings. However, I tend towards cheaper filters and it's more convenient in my opinion to just buy a new filter for each lens size you come across as you need (I wouldn't buy a circular polarizer for my 24mm lens for example, since it's normally got the sky in somehow - so I just would buy 1 for my 50mm and be done with it). If you're going to spend hundreds of dollars on each filter though... yeah, use step-up rings.

With filters, you get what you pay for... not sure which filter manufacturers you'd necessarily avoid, but if you want to pay for high-quality multicoated filters then Hoya's a good start.

 

[Dwig]

Kaeseman polarizers are specially sealed around the edges.

Polarizers are sandwiched constructs. The central plastic polarizing element, and a second de-polarizer in the case of circular polarizers, is sandwiched between two sheets of glass for protection. Kaeseman polarizers have special edge sealing to prevent delamination.

 

[Garbz]

No brands as such, since even the cheapest brands produce excellent quality filters. Just specific types of filters. If you find a polariser which does not have multicoating (Hoya standard filters) then stay away from them. However multi-coated filters are usually all of excellent quality and the return on investment of say a B+W polariers over a Hoya SHMC polariser is minimal.