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Leica Q2 Monochrom - colour filters


RobM

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57 minutes ago, T25UFO said:

Just out of interest, what is the price difference between B+W and Leica?  

I also bought two ND filters (x3 and x10) for my Q2 from Breakthrough Photography.  These are much better than B+W, absolutely neutral with no colour caste.  I bought direct from the US and I think they were priced about £100 each.  Breakthrough now have a UK website, although I haven't used it - they don't stock colour filters.

It's huge. In the U.S., the Leica filters are about twice as expensive as B+W.

3 hours ago, convexferret said:

I don't know about others but I use the black promist filters not for the slight softening effects for portraits but for the halation-style glow when shooting against the light. I find that a 1/8 strength is more then enough. Unfortunately they're hard to get in smaller sizes at times.

Same here. These aren't like the old soft focus filters that blur everything. When shooting wide open, the point of focus is still very sharp. In addition to working well with light sources, the filters have a very interesting effect on bokeh rendering and tonal blending, where it adds smoothness and a glow of sorts.

Example of the 49mm BPM 1/4 used on the X100V.

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13 hours ago, convexferret said:

I don't know about others but I use the black promist filters not for the slight softening effects for portraits but for the halation-style glow when shooting against the light. I find that a 1/8 strength is more then enough. Unfortunately they're hard to get in smaller sizes at times.

Yes that is a very popular effect - at least it used to be.  I recall using very similar filters on a TV campaign for the Gallo Wine family.   They were made by a company in California called Harrison & Harrison.  Made the BEST filters money could buy.   Yes, they were expensive but worth every nickel.  Luckily I still have my entire set of diffusion and contrast filters in a box on a shelf at home.   You can see the effects you describe here: 

 

 

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I use the Black Pro-Mist 1/4 and the B+W line-up (mostly orange and red), no complaints. Well, a lot of complaints actually, nothing to do with equipment, just need to improve as a photographer.

Not sure if there's any real benefit in buying the (overpriced) Leica filters apart from being somewhat of a purist (judging from my experience with Leica UVa vs B+W MRC nano).

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Looks like the Q lens is not so great for IR.

B+W IR 092 – screenshot from LR with highlights pulled all the way back:

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19 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

Looks like the Q lens is not so great for IR.

B+W IR 092 – screenshot from LR with highlights pulled all the way back:

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I would assume that does not matter which Q version is in question.....

IR 920 it seems  - might be too strong too? do you happen to have anything in the 700's range?

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18 minutes ago, nwphil said:

I would assume that does not matter which Q version is in question.....

IR 920 it seems  - might be too strong too? do you happen to have anything in the 700's range?

It's "B+W 092" but that is IR 695, so basically super-dark red.

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Thanks - so it seems that it is a 695nm

https://kolarivision.com/articles/choosing-a-filter/

I recall that when I had the M8, it was one of my 700's filters that held  the best results - not sure if a 720 or 760 as I have both.

Then lens itself  (not so much focal) might be the culprit here - other IR sensor conversion companies list lenses that are know to not be suitable for IR photography - the dreaded hot spot

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3 minutes ago, nwphil said:

Thanks - so it seems that it is a 695nm

https://kolarivision.com/articles/choosing-a-filter/

I recall that when I had the M8, it was one of my 700's filters that held  the best results - not sure if a 720 or 760 as I have both.

Then lens itself  (not so much focal) might be the culprit here - other IR sensor conversion companies list lenses that are know to not be suitable for IR photography - the dreaded hot spot

Yes, looks like the Q2M lens has a huge hotspot right in the center.

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3 hours ago, hdmesa said:

Update to say I'm returning the Leica UV filter and won't be buying the Leica color filters. The Leica UV almost got stuck on the lens this evening, I assume due to the aluminum construction instead of brass.

I had ordered the 3 Leica filters, but instead went with Heliopan, very happy so far.

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7 hours ago, JJ99 said:

I had ordered the 3 Leica filters, but instead went with Heliopan, very happy so far.

I have a 49mm Heliopan linear polarizer I use with my Q-P – great construction and function function, plus it has more neutral color than my B+W CPL.

I have a B+W color filter set now – thinking the orange will be the one that stays on the lens most of the time. I wish B+W made a green filter.

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34 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

I have a 49mm Heliopan linear polarizer I use with my Q-P – great construction and function function, plus it has more neutral color than my B+W CPL.

I have a B+W color filter set now – thinking the orange will be the one that stays on the lens most of the time. I wish B+W made a green filter.

indeed they do not

https://schneiderkreuznach.com/en/photo-optics/b-w-filters/filtertypes/nd-100-series-1

which is somewhat weird - Heliopan are great but they tend to have thick (read "tall") rims, which can lead to some vignetting 

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1 hour ago, nwphil said:

indeed they do not

https://schneiderkreuznach.com/en/photo-optics/b-w-filters/filtertypes/nd-100-series-1

which is somewhat weird - Heliopan are great but they tend to have thick (read "tall") rims, which can lead to some vignetting 

Yes, my Heliopan linear polarizer has a very tall ring. Thankfully on the Q, there is so much distortion correction in the corners that I've yet to use a single filter that did vignette. I have to stack two of the B+W F-Pro color filters to get vignetting, and those are have tall rings as well. I do like the height of the B+W color filter rings (F-Pro) since it makes them easier to change out. The B+W MRC Nano Clear is very thin and not so easy to grip to remove.

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  • 1 month later...

I paid £9 delivered for some 22 year old filters off ebay - yellow, orange, red

I did some test shots, so far so good..  In my tests I was curious to how much light was cut down too - 6400, 6400, 12500, 16000

No Filter by Daniel Cook, on Flickr

Yellow Filter by Daniel Cook, on Flickr

Orange Filter by Daniel Cook, on Flickr

Red Filter by Daniel Cook, on Flickr

 

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47 minutes ago, dancook said:

I paid £9 delivered for some 22 year old filters off ebay - yellow, orange, red

I did some test shots, so far so good..  In my tests I was curious to how much light was cut down too - 6400, 6400, 12500, 16000

No Filter by Daniel Cook, on Flickr

Yellow Filter by Daniel Cook, on Flickr

Orange Filter by Daniel Cook, on Flickr

Red Filter by Daniel Cook, on Flickr

 

One of my favorite beers. Great memories of fun times Brussels and Brugge. 

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  • 1 year later...

A couple of photos comparing the variation in response of the Q2M on skin tones. The first is a B&W light red filter. The second, one of several filters I use for astronomy - a Baader Planetarium green continuum filter, which passes a narrow (10nm) wide slice of the spectrum centered at 540nm. My 2" astronomy filters have 48mm threads, so a step down ring is used to adapt the filter to the Q2M 49mm thread. This causes some vignetting, also the exposure was quite a bit longer (ISO 1000 in red, 5000 in green). The green filter is not very kind to older skin though a dermatologist would probably enjoy it a lot.

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Alan, I think you are missing the main difference: the Baader added a pair of glasses to your face! How they do that us beyond me, but it has certainly made me think twice about purchasing one! 😀

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