enboe Posted March 31, 2007 Share #1 Posted March 31, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) O.K. More fodder to get blasted over. I shot with the Leica UV/IR cut, Heliopan 486, and B&W 486 filters today. My goal was to see which gave the best daylight snapshot performance, as this fits my personal style of shooting the best. Cutting to the chase, I do like the Leica filter the best, followed very closely by B&W, and then Heliopan. Standard rigamarole on test conditions: Leica M8, v1.092, 28/2.8 asph set to f/8, Auto white balance, auto exposure for first scene, typically 1/250. Raw capture. Phase One Pro conversion to TIFF, sharpening only, followed by CS2 conversion to 8 bits, resized, and saved as JPEG. Bright sunny California day. 1) No filter 2) Leica filter 3) Heliopan filter 4) B&W filter 5) Leica + Heliopan filters stacked 6) Leica + B&W filters stacked 7) Heliopan + B&W filters stacked 8) Leica + Heliopan + B&W filters stacked I have a second scene I can post if someone requests. As always, I hope this information is useful to someone in the Leica brotherhood. Enjoy! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted March 31, 2007 Posted March 31, 2007 Hi enboe, Take a look here 3-way comparison of IR cut filters - daylight shots. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
ho_co Posted March 31, 2007 Share #2 Posted March 31, 2007 Eric-- Thanks for posting. There really are differences among the brands, aren't there? Good to know. --HC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted March 31, 2007 Share #3 Posted March 31, 2007 Interesting thanks but there is too much and many color casts here. Difficult to compare filter brands without using manual white balance IMHO. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
grdglass Posted March 31, 2007 Share #4 Posted March 31, 2007 Thanks, Eric, for the comparison. I would be very interested in seeing the second scene series you mentioned. Helene Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted March 31, 2007 Share #5 Posted March 31, 2007 Just removed the Adobe RGB profile and did one click in iCorrect here: 1) Sans filter: http://tinyurl.com/rv7w/No_IRf_woARGB_iCor.jpg 2) Leica filter: http://tinyurl.com/rv7w/Leica_IRf_woARGB_iCor.jpg 3) Heliopan filter: http://tinyurl.com/rv7w/Helio_IRf_woARGB_iCor.jpg 4) B&W filter: http://tinyurl.com/rv7w/BW_IRf_woARGB_iCor.jpg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
enboe Posted March 31, 2007 Author Share #6 Posted March 31, 2007 A couple of follow-ups: 1) LCT - Thanks for showing what the smallest of post-correction can do. I wanted to give an uncorrected set of shots, but you have shown the feasibility of using any of the filters, a primary consideration based on limited availability for the near term. 2) Here's the second scene, as requested. Please note the specular reflection of the sun off of the spire on the left side of the picture. Enjoy. Attached: 1) No filter 2) Leica filter 3) Heliopan filter 4) B&W filter 5) Leica + Heliopan filters stacked 6) Leica + B&W filters stacked 7) Heliopan + B&W filters stacked 8) Leica + Heliopan + B&W filters stacked Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted March 31, 2007 Share #7 Posted March 31, 2007 Advertisement (gone after registration) ...LCT - Thanks for showing what the smallest of post-correction can do. I wanted to give an uncorrected set of shots, but you have shown the feasibility of using any of the filters... In fact i wanted to suggest that what you show here are more auto WB issues than actual differences between filters IMHO. Where WB is OK i see little differences not only between the filters but also between filtered and unfiltered pictures to the point where i wonder if any filter was necessary. Same in your second set of pictures. Auto WB looks better there but adjusting it the same way as i did above seems to lead to the same conclusion. Would you agree? 1) Sans filter: http://tinyurl.com/rv7w/No_IRf02_woARGB_iCor.jpg 2) Leica filter: http://tinyurl.com/rv7w/Leica_IRf02_woARGB_iCor.jpg 3) Heliopan filter: http://tinyurl.com/rv7w/Helio_IRf02_woARGB_iCor.jpg 4) B&W filter: http://tinyurl.com/rv7w/BW_Irf02_woARGB_iCor.jpg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
enboe Posted April 1, 2007 Author Share #8 Posted April 1, 2007 LCT, Thank you once again for showing what a little adjustment can do. I agree that Auto White Balance seems to vary visibly between no filter, Leica/B&W, and Heliopan. White Balancing in post processing brings the shots very close together. Any subtle differences are now at the discretion of the viewer. Perhaps I will have opportunity to repeat and expand the tests when V1.10 is released. In the mean time, time to enjoy my camera. Eric Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsteve Posted April 1, 2007 Share #9 Posted April 1, 2007 Eric: If you get a chance to do it again, try setting the M8 to daylight WB, and shoot on manual exposure with the same aperture and shutter speed. From looking at your shots, the Leica and B+W filters look similar and the Heliopan seems to affect the color and make it a bit muddy looking. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
enboe Posted April 1, 2007 Author Share #10 Posted April 1, 2007 Will do, but probably wait for v1.10. On the 2 requests: 1. The second series was shot on manual, 1/250 @ f/8. I will make sure to include an equivalent in any subsequent tests. 2. I will shoot with fixed WB in the future as well, both in-camera daylight, and using a manual WB. I chose Auto WB for this series for two reasons - first, as it most closely matches the snap & go style of the street photographer, and second, when I did shoot a couple of samples at daylight versus auto, the daylight showed an even more pronounced color shift. Thanks. Eric Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lct Posted April 1, 2007 Share #11 Posted April 1, 2007 ...The second series was shot on manual...... when I did shoot a couple of samples at daylight versus auto, the daylight showed an even more pronounced color shift... Was less pronounced in your 2nd (manual) series than in the first (auto) one IMHO. If you can find the time it would be interesting to do the same as your 2nd series with subjects more prone to IR contamination. Removing the Adobe RGB profile could be a good idea as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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