Do you use filter? Soft, Polarizer, etc. ?

[Einst_Stein]

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Do you use any filter on SL? The two come to my mind are Soft and Polarizer.

I give up any filter on Leica M,  mainly for inconvenience.

 

Of Polarizer, should it be circular or  linear? I see ugly corner when using polarizer.

Of soft, anyone knows the difference between the B+W Soft Pro and B+W Softar? I think Soft Pro is the glass version of the Softar (plastic?). I expect it to work the same as the Softar, but can't find any comment on it.

 

 

 

[250swb]

You can do the soft or glow effect in post-processing, no need for a filter anymore.

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[Sandokan]

Circular polarizer, for reasons I cannot remember, linear polarizers do not work with either the metering or digital sensors. 

 

Wide angle lenses give weird images as light from the edges will be polarized in different direction to the centre. 

[ramarren]

Sandokan: Linear polarizers work fine with digital sensors and with the SL's metering system. Linear polarizers don't work well with cameras where the metering and/or auto focus systems are dependent upon light pipes with mirrors or prisms in them since these are already polarizing elements. The SL uses no light pipes for either metering or auto focus, it has no mirrors or prisms in the light path from lens to sensor.

 

But, most of the better quality polarizers on the market today are circular polarizers anyway. 

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I use, very occasionally, either a polarizer or a deep (6 to 10 stop) neutral density filter with my SL. Were I doing more motion capture work, I would buy a variable ND filter as well. Most other filtering, other than infrared filtering, is more effectively done in software during image processing now. 

[rgacpa]

With the 24/90 I find you must use the thin version of any polarizing filter to avoid vignette at the corners. A linear pol works fine on the SL for reasons previously stated. They are less expensive than the circular ones.

 

 

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[mmradman]

And both B+W and Heliopan, premium filter makers, supply multicoated linear polarisers, cheaper than CP of the same size and grade. I have several which I used on M cameras but didn't come round to use them on SL more than once and they worked fine.

[Einst_Stein]

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Can I make a conclusion, linear polarizer is OK if it is mirorless and contrast type AF? And not OK if it has mirror or is phase type AF?

 

On the otherhand, even if it is OK, a circular polarizer may still have advantage because a circullar polarizer is usually better built?