Product Description

Light rays which are reflected by any surface become polarized and polarizing filters are used to select which light rays enter your camara lens. PL-CIR (Circular Polarizing) filters allow you to remove unwanted reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as water, glass etc. They also enable colors to become more saturated and appear clearer, with better contrast. This effect is often used to increase the contrast and saturation in blue skies and white clouds. HOYA's polarising filters do not affect the overall color balance of a shot.

Product Details

• Brand: Hoya
• Model: HOY 49 CIRC POLARIZING
• Dimensions: .10 pounds

Features

• Creates dramatic sky/cloud contrast.
• Saturates colors without changing color balance.
• Mount rotates to control amount of effect.

Customer Reviews

exactly what it says it is
This is a proper polarizing filter. It has a marking line on the forward (rotating) half of the filter, so you can keep track of the angle. Rotating the forward half is what changes the shadows reflecting off of the subject. It is also a true circular polarizing filter (I verified this myself). This is necessary for use with the autofocus systems of SLRs and Bayer filters over the sensors of DSLRs.

Does the job, but will slow down your lens ...
The 52mm circular polarizing filter is the size for inexpensive the Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 "kit" and DA 50-200mm f/4.0-5.6 telezoom lenses for the Pentax dSLR cameras, like the entry-level $400 K100D and expert $800 K10D. For those that don't know (new to SLR), you need a "circular" polarizing filter on auto-focus lenses, as a "linear" polarizing filter will prevent autofocus from working. Adding this filter does bring out the rich colors of the sky and water without breaking the bank. Such lenses are not fast (higher f-stop), so be aware that the additional f-stops this filter will add (it's not the most transparent) will limit your capabilities.

E.g., with the filter off the DA 50-200mm at its full 200mm zoom and f/5.6-6.3, I could get a 1/1000th shutter which was good enough to shoot F-15/18/22s at 400 knots in overcast. However, putting this filter on brought my shutter down to 1/350th or less, and I couldn't capture aircraft unless they were moving very slowly.

But if you're trying to capture such motion and want a better filter, you're already spending more money for a faster lens as well. If not, then this is the filter you want, at the right price. I give it four (4) stars because it is a great value for still or slower motion photography when you have inexpensive lenses where speed is not your consideration, but cost is. Again, remember, you need "circular" polarizing filters for auto-focus lenses, or auto-focus will not work (such as with "linear" ones).

Exactly as expected - like having x-ray vision
We put this filter on our Canon S3 IS and took a picture of a car. With filter, we can see through the glass windows into the interior. No filter, we see reflections and glare on the glass. Mission accomplished! This filter does exactly what we want such a filter to do. Comes in a good hard plastic box to protect it (some of our other filters from other makes come in paper boxes or simple cloth bags). Price was nicely competitive.