Tiffen Polarizer vs B+W - Darker Corners?

I use a tiffen but find that the corners of some photos are a darker blue sky then the rest of the frame? Is this just the nature of polarization or will a better circ polarizer like a B+W resolve it?

I suspect that the images with the darker corners were probably made with a shorter focal length (wider angle) lens than the others.

What focal length is the lens you have it mounted on? The wider the focal length, the more variation you get across the frame from CPL filters. Polarizers work best at a certain angle to the sun. Wide lenses cover a wider (duh!) range of angles to the sun.

EDIT:
I use a 77mm B&W CPL. It works OK on my 135L & 200L (with step-ring). On my 17-40 I get hugely variable color/contrast in any visible sky.

the 24-105 f4 and the 17-40 f4.

I am thinking of selling my 2 Tiffens and going with either a Hoya or B+W circ pol and ND 10 stop do these filters have a thread for the lens cap to grab onto? As I know there are some where your lens cap won't attach to the filter?

And of course I have heard the B+W filters are better than either the Tiffens or Hoyas?

I have a set of 67mm, and a set of 77mm Tiffen filters. (.3, .6, .9, 1.2 ND, & CPL) All of them accept lens caps. I've compared my 77mm Tiffen CPL to my 77mm B&W CPL. The difference most certainly is not worth the cost. Keep in mind that I don't get paid for my photos, and I don't use my CPLs often enough to worry about the minor difference. As usual, YMMV.

So has Tiffen stepped up their game, or what? A few years ago, Tiffen filters for still cameras were considered a joke.

For the OP: As has been mentioned, polarizers on a wide-angle lens will reveal the hard physical true that the effect of a polarizer varies with its angle to the sun...a wider angle reveals the variance in a single picture. That's not the brand of polarizer, that's just optical physics.

Be twice as careful trying to use "variable ND" filters on extreme wide angle lenses. Just as a polarizer will show its true stripe on an extreme wide angle lens, variable ND filters are really two polarizers sandwiched together. So they will show their "stripes" in the form of strange X-patterns when adjusted to their darkest positions.


If you're really just needing neutral density, you will find that a couple of ND filters will provide much more predictable results and higher quality (you can purchase more quality for the same bucket of ducats).

Tiffen web site discloses little to any attention to the topic of coatings. If you search long enough, you will find that some Tiffens have NO COATING (which results in contrast loss) and a very few filters have coatings.

"Q: How many anti-reflective layers are there in the coatings on the Tiffen 58 CP circular polarizer and precisely what kind of layers are they?

"A: The Tiffen Circular Polarizer is not multicoated at all. Multi-coating is a proprietary process, and we seriously doubt that any lens or filter manufacturer will tell you the exact nature and composition of their coating layers. Tiffen Digital HT filters are a state-of-the-art technological breakthrough in multi-coated photo and video filters. Digital HT – High Transmission – filters offer the strength of a Titanium coating combined with the purest optical quality glass and Tiffen’s Academy-Award-winning ColorCore™ technology. They present unmatched scratch-resistant durability and worry-free cleaning while other coated filters on the market today cautiously suggest delicate, if any, cleaning procedures, in fear of destroying the coating (and thereby the filter). Learn more about Tiffen Digital HT filters by clicking here."

Wilt wrote in post #18286742
Tiffen web site discloses little to any attention to the topic of coatings. If you search long enough, you will find that some Tiffens have NO COATING (which results in contrast loss) and a very few filters have coatings.

"Q: How many anti-reflective layers are there in the coatings on the Tiffen 58 CP circular polarizer and precisely what kind of layers are they?

"A: The Tiffen Circular Polarizer is not multicoated at all. Multi-coating is a proprietary process, and we seriously doubt that any lens or filter manufacturer will tell you the exact nature and composition of their coating layers. Tiffen Digital HT filters are a state-of-the-art technological breakthrough in multi-coated photo and video filters. Digital HT – High Transmission – filters offer the strength of a Titanium coating combined with the purest optical quality glass and Tiffen’s Academy-Award-winning ColorCore™ technology. They present unmatched scratch-resistant durability and worry-free cleaning while other coated filters on the market today cautiously suggest delicate, if any, cleaning procedures, in fear of destroying the coating (and thereby the filter). Learn more about Tiffen Digital HT filters by clicking here."

With regard to multicoating, I think the nature of polarizers eliminates a need for multicoating, but they ought to be single-coated.

RDKirk wrote in post #18286767
With regard to multicoating, I think the nature of polarizers eliminates a need for multicoating, but they ought to be single-coated.

Single coatings and double coatings are characteristically coatings which lose 8-10% of the light, whereas 'multicoatings' lose about 6-7%, and 'super multicoatings' only list 0.6-0.8% of the light...so for all intents and purposes, to me a single/double coating in effect is no coating at all!

Wilt wrote in post #18286770
Single coatings and double coatings are characteristically coatings which lose 8-10% of the light, whereas 'multicoatings' lose about 6-7%, and 'super multicoatings' only list 0.6-0.8% of the light...so for all intents and purposes, to me a single/double coating in effect is no coating at all!

That large loss of light is because of multiple reflections within the filter, each one "leaking" light.

But remember that all reflections after the first one will be polarized reflections, which the polarizer will filter out on the second reflection. Thus, a polarizer is going to lose all the light from the first reflection whether it's multicoated or not.