Filter recommendations for the faint of heart (i.e., noobs!)

[MacDaddy]

Here we go again! Using a bessa R3A and Nokton 40mm/1.4 lens. Need some filter suggestions. I have a Tiffen Skylight and Linear Polarizer (recommended by Stephen Gandy) for this lens; any others I should have for outdoor/nature/street photography? Your input in invited and welcome, folks!
Rob "MacDaddy" White

"I never let schooling interfere with my education"
—Mark Twain

 

[jaapv]

For B&W? Medium Yellow!!!!

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Are you gping to try black&white photography?

If so a set of contrast enhancing filters is in order, yellow being the one to start with. A yellow is often called a "Cloud filter" as it brings out white clouds against a blue sky. Red filters will darken the sky substantially. Orange is somewhere in between.

Collect them all... Y44, Y48, O56, R60.

 

[rover]

Yup, yellow for B&W, I have one on all my RF lenses.

For color I don't use a filter at all, just a hood and naked front glass.

 

[XAos]

Are gel filters more expensive? I dont see them used a lot, my casual rooting around led me to believe they were less expensive (But that may be only compared to B+W brand) but I've seen people refer to them as being more expensive.

I have a whole gaggle of cameras/lenses that I play with. I think I can cover it pretty well with a 77mm filter with a 72mm step up for the Mamiya and my main pentax slr zoom lens, and a 55mm with a 52mm step up would cover the GSN and any other Kmount lenses I have. I really hate that the GSN is the odd man out on the filter sizes, because it is one of the cameras I shoot frequently. Being a range finder a large step up is not real practical.

 

[jaapv]

Gel filters are not practical on a RF. The compendium (holder/hood) will block the viewfinder, there are no lenses that I know of that will take them on the rear like the Canon 17-40 L.
The main advantage would be that they are available in far more colours than standard filters. They scratch very easily. For filters I tend to agree with Rover, except for using a Polariser when appropriate with colour, however unpractical the use on a RF may be....

 

[XAos]

The 77 is a Mamiya RB67. The 72 is a Pentax Kaf. The RB is my "new favorite" so it gets shot a lot right now. The Pentax makes up the bulk of my other shooting. I hate to admit it here, but I really dont shoot the GSN that much unless what I'm shooting just doesn't move.

 

[wlewisiii]

Medium yellow, yellow-green, (Y2, K2 or similar designations) is probably the best place to start with filters in B&W photography. It is dark enough to make clouds stand out and can help in outdoor portraits (darkens lips and cheeks a bit.). It's a good all around starting point.

William

 

[wyk_penguin]

Anyone a fan of the green filter?

If you use a polariser on an RF, you need to get a special adapter which allows you to see the effect in the viewfinder. The thing is sort of like a vented hood, without the "hood" part, just the vents, if you get the idea. So be prepared to get a 77mm filter for you 55mm threaded lenses. Also if the front element turns during focusing, a polariser can be quite troublesome.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I've never quite understood the idea of using polarizers all the time -- see what they do to blue sea and lakes, for a start. Yes, they darken some blue skies a bit. So?

Years ago they helped add saturation to low-sat films (and almost all films were low-sat in those days) but RF lenses are generally so much contrastier than SLR that I remember one reviewer criticizing my '35mm Panorama' for its 'over-saturated, over-polarized' images. I didn't worry because he clearly hadn't read the book. If he had, he'd have seen that I said that one problem with the Leicas I used was that they couldn't easily be used with polarizers, so I didn't...

I use polas in the studio, but almost never elsewhere. I didn't even bother to pack one for my last tour of Central and Eastern Europe in June/July: from home in France via Germany and Austria to Hungary, then Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic and home, 7200km/4500 miles in a 1973 Land Rover 88.

But we did carry yellow, orange and red for B+W.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[peter_n]

I too am a filter guy and I have medium yellow (1 stop) filters for all my lenses and red (3 stops) filters for most of them. The red filters I have not used too much - you need to be a bit careful with them - see the link below. The yellow filters I use indiscriminately because I like contrasty pics.

Red Filters

 

[Nikon Bob]

About the only filters I use with a rangefinder are med. yellow, for B&W, and a 2 stop ND filter to get either a slower shutter speed or be able to shoot at a wider aperature. With an SLR, I always used a Pola but they are a pain to use on a RF so I don't bother. I don't really miss the Pola.

Bob