Promaster Filters

[bluesaphyer]

Hey All,

The filters my local camea shop sells are all Promaster brand. I've noticed that not a lot of online stores carry these. I was just wondering if anyone else has heard of them and what you think? Are they any good?

And as a side note... I know a lot of people put UV filters on their lenses to protect them, but when you go to use another filter, like a polarizer, do you leave the UV filter on and stack them or do you take the UV off?

Thanks!
Julie

 

[panocho]

I have one Promaster circular polarizer. I must say that I have not use it very much, so far (haven't got many opportunities yet), but it seems to be ok. Surely not a great glass quality, but it does its job. I guess it all depends on how much are you willing to pay. Would never pay much for anything which I'm not positive about its quality, that is, that it's worth the money. But I paid very little for this promaster. Sorry I can't help much!

You can leave the UV and add (an)other filter(s) on it. But just because it's a faster way to do it. it's better to have mounted only those you want the effect they'll give. The UV hardly gives any, but it's another glass in your lens. And if the glass of the filter is not the quality of the glass in your lens (which happens many times), then you'll be loosing quality. I wouldn't worry about this, though. You probably won't notice that loss -unless the filter you have is a real crap.
The main issue you should keep in mind is vigneting: too many filters mounted at a time might make the ring of the last one appear on the picture. Normally tha risk comes from about 3 filters, but it depends on the focal distance of the lens (the less, the more risk).
Ah! another issue is light metering. Shouldn't be a big problem if you use a SLR. but still, the most reliable reading is without filters. Then they usually come with the information of how many f-stops the need to compensate.

Hope this helps

 

[bluesaphyer]

Thanks for the info! I was beginning to think no one was going to reply. I have used the UV and Polarizer filters, and I didn't see any problems. Those are the only brand I've ever used though, so I really don't have much to compare them to. I just got to wondering when I noticed that places like B&H don't carry them. They're usually not too expensive 10$-30$, so I guess I'll keep on using them until I see a need for something better.

Thanks Again!
Julie

 

[ksmattfish]

I just got to wondering when I noticed that places like B&H don't carry them.

B & H may not carry Promaster, but they carry what they call "general brand" filters that are probably about the same thing. I wish I could afford all B+W brand filters, but I've made due with significantly cheaper brands.

 

[Kent Frost]

I used to sell a lot of Promaster stuff when I worked at the shop. Promaster lenses are made by Tamron, and some of the flashes are made by Vivitar and Sigma, I know that much. As far as the filters, it depends on which one you're looking at. Some are Hoya, some are Tiffen.

The lenses aren't bad. I use a 28-105, which is almost identical to the Tamron 28-105. They don't have any 2.8 lenses though.