Polariser for UWA? Worth it?

[leanne0333]

Off to NZ tomorrow. contemplating popping into town in the morning to buy a polariser for my UWA. So interested to know anyones views on polarisers for UWA (11-16 crop sensor) A good quality filter will set me back $190 so is it worth it? I know the effect is not as dramatic for UWA and there is a risk of vignetting. But I would be lost without my polariser for my other lenses (which works perfectly at 18mm) and since my subjects will mostly be mountains, forests, beaches, glaciers, more mountains....

Any thoughts?

[hakka]

Good for waterfalls but they dont work very well on skies. that price sounds high, kenko pro1d are good, and from memory a fair bit cheaper.

[old dog]

agree 100% with hakka on this one. I used on on the Milford track a couple of years ago and could kick myself very hard. The skies are very uneven when you go really wide. Just use it for cutting back reflections and doing waterfalls if you have not got an ND filter. OK if you don`t go too wide. Take it off if you do a panorama sequence.

[Mark L]

A couple of other recent opinions here .......http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?112741-UWA-and-CPL

[arthurking83]

For the Tokina 11-16mm you may need the slim version of a polariser.
The standard versions have been known to cause excessive vignetting.

The reason this can happen is pure physics.
The front element on the Tokina is a constant F/2.8, and so the glass is physically bigger than other wide angle lenses of 'similar' types.
eg. the front element on the Siggy 10-20mm f/4-5.6 is about half the diameter of the Tokina front element.
That means that the part of the lens element that focuses the light rays onto the sensor is closer to the edge of the lens barrel and hence the edges of the filter too.

That probably explains part of the high price of the filter.
Those slimline polarisers can be more expensive, but also in saying that they also seem to have a better build quality than the standard versions too.


I'd say get one .. but also be weary of them on ebay, they are prime targets for forgeries, so if a price looks too good to be true, it most likely is.