A-Hoya There Matey - New Filters A'Comin'

We've just gotten a sliver of information from the people who import the Hoya brand of photographic filters that they will be bringing in a new line.

The press release says that Hoya are introducing three new tough filters under the title of " Fusion ". They'll be the three classics of digital photography - the UV filter, the clear glass protector, and the circular polarizer.

The big difference is in the number and nature of the coatings on the glass which are intended to repel dust, water, and fingerprints. It sounds rather exotic as there are to be 9 coating layers to toughen the surfaces.

They'll be in the popular sizes from 37mm to 82mm and look to be quite economical.

We have yet to see whether they will be able to cope with special contaminants - dog noses in animal studios and gummy bears in studios that do children's portraiture...

See the range here - the fusion may not be there yet, but wait for our online maintenance crew, they'll be off break soon :)

Humble Advice From The Filter Drawer - The Step Ring Tango

The most overlooked accessory in the shop is the humble step ring.

Now if you're a filter user - and there are some who are, you know - the step ring is your friend. You might have a stable of lenses for your camera that have all sorts of different filter diameters - from 39mm up to 95 mm.

If the manufacturers of the lenses wanted to play the game fair they will have used the classical sizes - 48mm, 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, etc. If they were drinking sake at lunchtime they made them with 40mm or 56mm or somesuch nonsense size. There is a special curse for lens designers that specify non-standard filter sizes...

With the regular ones, you can select a filter that is the size of your largest diameter lens - say a 72mm diameter big zoom - and then get adapters to let you use this lens on the smaller lenses in the bag. If you only use UV filters it probably makes more sense to get a dedicated one for each lens and to keep it on all the time. But if you are a polariser user, you might spend your money wisely on a really top-grade Circ Pol and spread it over a number of lenses. The adapters are generally under $ 15 so it makes sense.

If you are dedicated to spoiling the resolution of your camera lens by clapping optical adapters on the front of the standard lens * the step-up and step-down rings let you do this as well. Video camera enthusiasts seem to want to do this a lot and perhaps it works for them - still camera shooters generally do better getting a fresh lens rather than trying to modify an old one.

Experimenters who pursue other optical effects - putting cameras on microscopes or telescopes - or who construct strange light boxes with matt board and gaffer tape** can also use the step ring as a ready attachment to the front of the lens.

* Exception to this rule - the converters that Fujifilm make for their X-100 series of cameras. Both tele and wide converters screw on to the front of the camera lens and do their job without degrading the camera lens performance one tiny little bit. Hooray.

** Guilty.

The Fred Astaire Of Filters

The French.

It's always the French. Every time.

I bought a Renault R 10 motor car in 1966. 4-wheel disc brakes. 4-wheel independent suspension. Most wonderful seats in any car short of a Rolls Royce. And a 998cc engine and no radio...A set of design decisions on the dashboard that left you indecisive...for the six years that I drove it I was never entirely certain what several of the lights meant. I just put oil in the tiny crankcase and hoped for the best...

That said, I contemplated the new line of Cokin filters on the wall. These are round screw-in types - not the square plastic ones that the brand is famous for. They come in a retailer's nightmare of a box - 20% bigger than any other box on the wall and consequently nothing stacks next to it. The French.

Inside the improbably big but undoubtedly stylish packaging is the thinnest UV filter in the universe. See heading picture. These screw onto 77mm and 82mm fittings and then, quite frankly, seem to disappear into the lens itself. Certainly no chance of vignetting on even the widest lenses.

The really good thing for the user is that after purchasing this fine product, screwing it onto the lens, and cleaning it with a Hoodman Lens Cleanse...you can throw the box away. Or use it to store Renault R10 motor cars.

A Special Treat For You, My Dear - Care To Try One?

With apologies to Uncle Walt for the leading image...here is a report on three new lenses on the Camera Electronic shelves.

Rokinon is not a name that has cropped up here in the shop before. We got to see some of their DSLR lenses recently and were mightily impressed. So much so that we ordered some to test out - both in Nikon and Canon mounting.

The first is the longest - the Rokinon 85mm f:1.4 lens. It would appear to be full-frame, and is available in either mount. The lens is purely manual focus with a well-damped action on the focusing ring. It is marked as focusing as close as 1 metre and the infinity mark is floating to cope with variation. The lens mount is metal, finely machined, and since the lens is MF anyway, suitable for darn near any Nikon DSLR or film SLR.

Aperture is click-stopped to f:22. The lens barrel is very finely finished and I note that the basic barrel structure is cold metal. A lens hood, and F/R caps are supplied.

The 24mm lens by Rokinon is F:1.4 - that is exciting as it is. Very similar construction to the 85mm but with a petal lens hood and a red trim ring. Closest focus is 25 cm. (!). It is a weighty lens - there is a good barrel and a lot of glass in there. Not an inconsiderable thing to carry. Remember that it too is purely manual focus.

Shortest of the lenses is the 14mm f:2.8 Aspherical. It is an extremely wide-angle experience for Nikon users and is a little daunting with the forward bulge of glass. You can't detach the petal lens hood, and filters might be problematical, but it will certainly gather in all you want from an interior or landscape shot. I count 13 elements on the lens diagram.

Best news of all is that photographers can experiment with these lenses without risking the bank account - the 85mm is $ 399 - the 14mm is $ 499 and the 24mm is $ 749. That is as cheap as chips and chips aren't multicoated...unless you count the salt.

And in case you are wondering, the model is Amanda and in real life she is the sweetest person in Perth - nothing at all like the wicked queen.

More Than Just A Change Of Clothes - New Sigma

I have been watching the Sigma range of lenses over the last five years - not just as a salesperson, but as a user of their wide angle 8-16mm lens on my Nikon camera. As I explained before, I spent my own money to buy one, use it in the studio and at weddings and car shows*, and amdelighted with the results.

In examining the lenses, I have noted a constant change in the presentation of them. of course the mounts - whether Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc - remain constant, but the barrel finish and control rings seem to change quite a lot. I've seen smooth aluminium anodising, matt plastic surface, crinkled paint surface, and any number of patterns for the rubber rings. Some of these seem to be more successful than others in resisting the grubbiness of he fingers that grip them.

What intrigued me today in looking for a blog topic was a comparison between the 30mm f:1.4 lens of six months ago with the current new 30mm f:1.4 Art lens. The barrel finish is different - sure - and the mounts are the same - sure - but the big surprise comes in looking at the front element.

I had expected to see the same glass in each mount. No way - the filter thread is 62ø in each case but the front element size in the new Art lens is half the area of the older lens. Both are coated, of course. If they are both f:1.4, and the exit pupil of each lens is roughly the same,  how the heck can one be half the size of the other?

Different lens formulation is my guess - so we are not just getting the old wine in a new bottle. As the 30mm focal length is perfect for my DX-sized camera...equating to 45mm in the old film camera speak...I think it is time to do some real personal studio tests on the new Art lens to see what it produces. I shall report.

Uncle Dick

Purity and Harmony In Your Camera Bag - A New Age Dawns

Arise, ye downtrodden. No, wait, that's a different sales pitch. May Day is over...

Peace, brothers and sisters. We are here to bring you pure harmony and a clear view of the world. We are here to protect you. We are here to help you resist atmospheric haze, oil, dust, and soil.

Yes, soil.

And all this in the thinnest possible way. We have just taken delivery of a number of Cokin round screw-in filters for various lens sizes.

We've got UV and circular polariser filters that can attach to the fussiest wide angle lenses without creating any vignetting. All the way up from 37mm to 77. They are especially coated and packed in enormous filter cases.

Ask for the Pure Harmonie model of filter.