Hoya 67mm Pro-1 Digital Circular Polarizing Filter

Another finely crafted filter from Hoya, one of the most well established manufacturers of these items on the market.The Pro1 polarising filter fits tight'n'clean directly onto the lens or onto another filter - I have UV daylight Hoyas permanently fitted to my 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses, both to do what they supposed to do, and to protect the front elements of the lenses themselves.Happy about the 55-200mm, because the elements don't turn externally when zooming or focussing, but the front element of the 18-55mm Nikkor does to focus, and has very little resistance when in manual mode, so I was concerned that getting the desired effect by turning the two-element Hoya polariser would make a mess of an otherwise carefully framed and focussed shot.Not so: although the filter has some friction built in for holding its setting, its precision means it turns smoothly with fractionally less resistance than the lens ring, and the two work well together, although a practised touch will be needed, at least on my setup.As it only arrived today - a mere few days after placing my order: well done, Amazon and Camera King - I haven't had time to get back properly into using this type of filter, but there are plenty of rivers, canals and other opportunities nearby to see what it can do. A similar (Hoya) version worked well with my old 35mm SLR.This version isn't cheap, but you get what you pay for. Because of the sheer quality of manufacture, slim profile and almost addictive, tactile precision, it has to merit a five star score.Another note:...and the 67mm version recently purchased for my new 18-105mm Nikkor is just as good. Nice crisp action - the 18-105's focus ring only telescopes to achieve focus, rather than rotates as well, but again, the minimal friction of the polariser is a delight to use. Another 5-star vote for the Hoya.

Item arrived exactly as described, in secure and sealed packaging and was delivered within a week of purchasing. It is a great filter and can really provide that extra wow factor to scenic/landscape photography when used appropriately. No signs of vignetting either. On bright days it is particularly good at bringing out the colours of vegetation and varying depths of blue in the sky, not to mention the detail and texture in any cloud cover which would otherwise be completely undetected. It is easy to attach and remove and very easy to rotate once attached, so you can vary the polarising effect. It fits my Tokina 11mm - 16mm wide angle lens perfectly and also all my 67mm lenses when using a 77mm to 67mm step-down ring (well worth investing in). It is a significant amount of money but it is not expensive when compared to other outlets and the quality is great and, if you purchase step-down rings for your other lenses, could be the only polarising filter you ever need to buy. Think of the difference in colour and texture experienced on landscape photos taken at dawn and dusk from those taken in the harsh light of midday - much richer colours and much more texture with low angle light. Well, this filter allows you to photograph during midday sun and capture much more texture and depth of colour than you would otherwise be able to. A must for the kit bag.

I've just received this product today, and initially I ran into a couple of problems. The screw-in thread didn't quite line up properly when attaching the lens, so the filter was a bit lobsided. I had to unscrew it, take it off and put it back on again. In the proccess, because it is a bit fiddly to use, I managed to get finger prints on the filter. (Not a good start for 2 minutes in, but bear with me). So after a bit of a polish, the filter screwed in properly and I began shooting.The effect is very impressive. On Youtube, Dom Bower did a video demonstrating the effect of such filters, and it felt a little bit hard to imagine it working in real life, but it does... Not really a surprise there, it's just nifty physics at work. Looking the 'right way' through the lens and rotating it will vary the angle of the light, and as a result will eliminate some reflections, or hide clouds, or make TVs and screens appear darker. Look through it the wrong way and you'll notice the element changes colour from a slight blue to a yellow; I am unable to tell if this colour balance is going through into the photos though.The only concern I have (assuming you're more competant than I was at putting the filter on) is that the filter is very thin and it is not allowing the lens cap to be placed properly. They use thin glass and thin frames to reduce vignetting on wide angle lenses, but this still means that the lens cap is only held half in place by the filter. It makes me feel very concious about damaging my lens. If they had just made the filter 2mm taller, this problem would be eliminated. This problem has occured on my Canon lens. Though I doubt results will vary depending on the manufacturer.So all in all, it's a very good lens. I would just be careful with it. I am worried about damaging my lens by removing the filter after use, but I am also worried about breaking the filter if I leave it on and the lens cap falls off.