whats your favorite filter ?

[Dave in Kansas]

I suppose favorite does not mean used most often. When I use a filter, most often it is a yellow K2. But I really like the orange G.

Dave

[moki]

Red (or maybe it's dark red) that needs about 20-25x exposure. It allows long exposure or open aperture in daylight and gives a great look with Superpan 200, which I use very often. Portraits become very smooth/soft and under the right circumstances there is a slight wood-effect in landscapes but not the completely surreal tones of infrared photography.

Other than that: clean air. When I have a very sharp lens, I don't want to reduce its quality by putting some piece of glass in front unless it's absolutely necessary.

For lomographic stuff, I use whatever is around. Pieces of glass or plastic, bubble wrap or beer bottles. One of my favourites is a yellow filter that got dropped from a roof. It's completely shattered and full of dirt, so it gives great flare and vignetting.

[Renato Tonelli]

My favorite filter. Makes everything better.

Forgot to list this one in my post - thank you for the reminder. I also use it as an all-around and most excellent lubricant.

[Jeff Kubach]

I also like the 81A filter.

Jeff

[Klainmeister]

You raise an interesting point, Moki, that I have often wondered about. Does having a filter actually reduce image quality on high-end lenses?

[André E.C.]

If the filter is of low quality, you will notice the loss. If it is one of the highest quality optical glass, well, you will lose a tad of course, after all, you're placing more glass in front of your optic, but nothing you will notice at naked eye.

I use always the highest quality filters on the market, filters are something where I don't save money, I demand utmost optical glass quality, whatever the price.


I use B+W mainly.



Cheers

[railwayman3]

Does having a filter actually reduce image quality on high-end lenses?

In theory, it must do. But in practice, using a good quality, clean, coated filter, I've never noticed any adverse effect.

I like to have filters of various kinds to hand for B&W, and to a limited extent for color, but try not to use them unless they really contribute to,or improve, a shotg....for example, I groan when I yet another indifferent landscape with gimicky white clouds and black skies that shouts "Infra-red filter", or an uninteresting night shot with a "starburst x6" on all the highlights.....

[Klainmeister]

Ok, so I have a set of B&W and Tiffen filters that I mainly use. My set of lenses are the M7 43mm, 80mm, 150mm, yada yada. I hear these are the best, but without access to the darkroom, I'll take it as hearsay. Nevertheless, I've always wondered if I should be removing my UV protection filters or not since these lenses are supposed to be so highly rated.