Today’s Post by Joe Farace
I have zero filters.— Ayda Field
Trivia
The Cokin filer system was invented by photographer Jean Coquin and introduced at Germany’s fotokina show in 1978. That just happened to be the first time I attended the show and was able to meet and “talk” with Monsieur Coquin through a friend who spoke German talking to a Cokin representative who spoke German and then French to him! At the point, I asked when they would be bringing those filters to America but he did not have US distribution at the time. Later Minolta became the US distributor and in the those intervening years, I acquired 300 or so—I kind of lost count—Cokin filters in various sizes and creative possibilities.
More History Lessons
Back in the film days, camera manufacturers tried to standardize on a single filter size for most of their lenses so you only needed handful of filters in few sizes for your system. That no lingers seems to be the case. These days it seems it’s more of a filter smorgasbord and every time you add lenses to your system from the either camera manufacturer or third-party lens companies, you can easily find yourself owning lenses that have many different filter sizes. And if you try to get several kinds in a particular size, you may be looking at more than a handful of filters.
Using modular filters overcomes this obstacle by letting you to purchase one filter that fits all of your different lenses. That means you only need to own one ND, gradient, or polarizer filter and it will fit all your lenses. These filters typically slip into a holder that uses adapter rings that will fit different lenses and even different format cameras. All you need is a single, inexpensive adapter for each of your different lenses thread sizes. The sizes of filters and the type of adapters used may vary by modular filter manufacturer but some company’s filters are compatible with other company’s modular systems.
Modular filters can be square or rectangular, although companies, such as Cokin, Hi-Tech and others offer round filters as well. These filters are also more than likely to be made out of plastic. These plastic filters are typically formulated using the same kind of optical resin material that’s used in eyeglasses so optically you should have no concerns.
Tips About Sizes
Cokin’s original A filter system uses 75mm x 75mm filters. The larger P (84 x 84mm) filter system was designed for medium format cameras but the not-so-available-anymore A/P adapter lets you use the A filters in a P filter holder so (if you can find one on eBay) it’s not necessary to buy P filters if you already own equivalent A versions of. Another Tip: When using A-sized filters on shorter focal length lenses some vignetting can occur so watch out for this problem on your camera’s LCD preview screen.
Cokin has a large (6.7 x 5.1) inches X-Pro size that uses a holder that’s similar to the A and P series but with more rugged construction. Cokin launched a 130mm wide Z-Pro series. A (may be hard to find) Z/P adapter lets you use Z filters on a P Holder and the Z/P Wide Angle Adapter lets you use Z filters on a P Wide-Angle Holder.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.75, Starbucks has raised its price for Earl Grey), click here. And if you do, thank so very much.