I'm learning

[PolynesianMedic]

Ok, so we went to Hershey Park this weekend, and although it isn't Disney, we had a good time. While I was waiting for my wife and son to get off a ride, I decided to play with the camera a bit. I learned something incredible. The Circular Polarizer when turned correctly (vs. not being turned at all) does make a NICE difference. Here are my examples. The first shot is with my 18-55mm "zoomed" in all the way at 55mm with no Circular Polarizer. The second shot is with my 75-300mm not zoomed but left at 75mm with the circular polarizer turned to block the light correctly. I wanted to post the differences here for anyone else that might have the same question in the future.

#1

#2

I still can't believe the difference in color.

 

[Dan]

Yep. I'm really fond of them.. but when I upgraded to my 70-200 I never picked up a properly sized CP, the popular wisdom was that a high grade lens like that required equally high grade filters, and I found that I spent a lot of time pushing the limits of available light anyway, so I wasn't in a hurry to lose 1-2 stops of light.

Plus.. One of my favorite zoo animals, the Snow Leopards, are almost always shot through thick glass that shows defects when viewed through polarizers. If you look at car glass through a polarizer you can see a similar effect sometimes. On the other hand polarizers can also help when shooting through glass by eliminating reflections, so it's kind of a double edged sword there.

For the times when I'm shooting through open air with sufficient light though.. I admit these examples have got me thinking about getting a good polarizer again. At least my two main lenses use the same filter size so I don't have to get two.

 

[gary]

buy 1 polarizer in the largest common size you need, usually 77mm, then buy cheap step up rings, ie, 67 to 77 step, 1 cp does the job for all