[Leica] Filters and Filter Mounts

[marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)]

At 12:41 AM 3/26/2009, Henning Wulff wrote:

 >Over the years I have tried and bought many filters. In the 70's and
 >80's, about 1/3 of the filters were poor quality which introduced
 >noticeable degradation. A large part of this was a lack of
 >plano-parallel surfaces. Harrison and Harrison were the worst
 >offenders, and almost all their filters failed the most basic tests.
 >Many Hoyas and Tiffens of the time did as well. Leica and Nikon did
 >not. I'm not going near H&H again. I just tried to find a website
 >describing their offerings, but can't find one. Only an aol e-mail
 >address. I don't know if they produce the requisite IR/UV cut
 >filters, but if they do the prices are presumably not likely to be
 >out of line with others on the US market.

I will cheerfully confess to not having a clue as 
to what an "IR/UV cut filter" might be when it is 
at home, so you are on your own on that one.

In the 1970's, there were a number of tests 
conducted on the major filter brands by a number 
of analysists.  H&H won every one of these for 
the fineness of the parallel surfaces on its 
wares.  They got downchecked as they do not do 
dyed-in-the-mass glass, but that of little 
concern outside of technical and scientific 
applications.  Your mileage flies in the face of 
the industry findings, I fear.  That was at a 
time, by the way, when Zeiss and B+W were trying 
to break into Hollywood and H&H shut 'em down 
cold.  You might want to try them again -- and 
get a REALLY good mike to check out the parallel nature of their surfaces.

The H&H filter adapters are magnificent.  Tired 
of the junk Kenko sells?  Try the H&H B50 
Hasselblad Series adapter ring or the Bayo III 
for a Rolleiflex TLR.  Absolutely wonderful.

I almost never use filers -- but I do use H&H 
filter adapters.  When I need to use a filter, I 
generally use one of theirs or a Franke & Heidecke or Leitz filter.

Marc


msmall at aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!