I have Konica FT-1 and will be using both color and B & W. (Primarily color print until I get up the confidence to go to slide). I have inherited some filters from a family member and was wondering if the list here is good enough, or would you recommend any others such as the Enhancing filter by Tiffen or their Color Compensation filter (I thought the CC30M would be the most universal). I have a Tiffen circular polarizer, Vivitar Yellow No. 8, Vivitar Orange(02), Tiffen UV, and a Tiffen 812 color warming filter.

As for lenses, I have (all Hexanon) a 50mm f/1.8 and a 70 - 150mm f/4 zoom. A 28mm f/3.5, 135 f/3.5 and a 200mm f/4 are on their way to me. I wish (and still may) replace my 50mm with the 40mm lens as my 'normal' lens.

Any comments or suggestions would be wonderful!! THANK YOU

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2000

Answers

Filters

Well, the list you have there is better than what I have, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get more. It all depends on what you want to achieve with your camera. You may wish to get a 81A filter (equiv. to the tiffen 812) to warm scenes up a bit. I have one, but found that in low light, using a 81A filter can produce very warm pictures, and people turn out "tanned".

The Polarizer filters are wonderful and I use them whenever I can. I own 4 now. (2 77mm, 1 52mm and 1 55mm).

I have also heard the 40mm f1.8 is a very sharp lens (I am looking to buy one myself). Also the 57mm f1.4 is supposed to be very sharp too (I have one of those).

If you are interesed in a lot of creative effects, get the Cokin filter system. It is cheaper than getting individual screw-on filters.

Mike

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2000

812 vs 81A

noticed something that made me wonder:

is the 81A filter really equiv to the Tiffen 812?

i own both an 81B and 812, and it appears that the 812 is much much warmer than the 81B. also when looking at the filters, the 812 appears to have much more "color".

anyone know what the deal is?

paul.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

812 Filter

The 812 filter warm things up VERY nicely and I found it great when I was in higher altitudes. I also took pictures of fall foliage and was very pleasantly surprised with its results. Put on my lens WITH a polarizing filter made for some wonderful results.

I still would like a filter to use in the snow, and on some shots the color was wrong with the 812 which indicates that it may not be as effective on blue light as I thought...(correct me if I am wrong, but I think I need a yellowish filter to work with blue light?? - this filter is pinkish)

Anyway, its not as expensive as Tiffens warming filter, but will do nicely for many applications - especially combined with a polarizing filter. I hope this helps.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2000

Tiffen 812

I find the Tiffen 812 to be warmer than the 81A. I find that I use it a lot with a Tokina 28mm which seems to be a much "cooler" lens than my Hexanons.

Another use I find for the 812 is flash photography - especially those situations where the flash gives you that blue color tint in the pictures. A good example is outdoor fill flash situations in open shade. I also find that it warms up flash pictures of babies whose skin color is already white enough and then exagerated by the flash.

It may be that the 812 works for me in these situations for two reasons:

1. I shoot a lot of Fuji NPH which has very neutral color and contrast. I'm not sure that you would want to use the 812 with a film with a lot of color saturation.

2. I have a lot of my general purpose pictures processed at mini labs and the effects of the filter are more noticeable. A pro lab would probably correct out a lot of the filters' effects.

I don't use the 812 a lot but I find it comes in handy in the above situations.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2000

Filters

Hi, My own interests lie very heavily in B&W, therefore I recommend you buy every contrast filter you can lay your hands on!!:-) Seriously, though, I do recommend you get an X1, or Yellow-Green, filter. You will find it most useful in landscapes or when a lot of foliage is present and you need or want some detail in it. The yellow to red range of filters tend to darken even light greens far too much. Also, despite your already having the orange, I would suggest a 25A Red, too. This comes in handy for sweeping shots with lots of sky and clouds that need drama, and for pics that need haze-penetration. Most useful in big city areas for cutting down on smoky-looking haze caused by smog. Now, as to use with color, I can't recommend any filter outside of a polarizer unless you are shooting very critical shots on slide film. The use of color compensating or warming filters is superfluous when using negative films that can be (and mostly are) compensated during the printing stage. The UV filter can be tossed, in my opinion, in favor of a Skylight for keeping things kosher with slide films. Unless you are shooting in the mountains. Rather high up in the mountains at that. Personally, I use no filters when shooting color except a polarizer. Lastly, get the 40mm! It is definitely a sharp optic by any standard. I have found that it is also useful for macro shots using extension tubes. Its somewhat symmetrical design (like a bellows or macro lens) seems to work quite well in the close range.

Jon from Deepinaharta, Georgia

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2000