Camera Lenses And Filters

Digital Circular Polarizing

10 Affordable Gift Ideas for Photographers

        While photography equipment is known for being pricey, there are some great gift ideas for individuals who want to buy a nice gift for a photographer without breaking the bank.  We have compiled a list of items to make your shopping as easy as possible.

1.       Magazine Subscription – Outdoor Photographer is just one of the many photography magazines available, but is a good choice if the photographer enjoys taking picture of nature and landscape.   The magazine offers gear reviews, tips for improving your knowledge in both photography and post processing, and provides insight on locations and workshops available. Retail $19.99

2.       External Hard Drives – Too many photographers depend on their notebook or desktop to store their files.  Not only does this slow down the computer, but it also prevents them from accessing the files if the hard drive fails.  An external hard drive will allow you to work faster while providing you with a peace of mind knowing your files are safer.  Retail Price $99-$250

3.       Flashpoint 42-Inch 5 in 1 Collapsible Disk Reflector – This product is great for adding fill light to your subjects and contains translucent, white, silver, black, and soft gold.  This product is easy to breakdown and carry in the field. Retail Price $45

4.       Photography Books- There are some great books on photography available at reasonable prices.  Pick books that relate to type of photography they enjoy.  Also find out if they use Photoshop or another photo editor and see what books are available.   John Shaw’s Nature Photography Field Guide should be on the bookshelf of every nature photographer. Retail Price $17-$25

5.       Digital Photo Frame – The prices have dropped substantially recently without a decrease in quality.  We have not found it worth the extra price in most cases to purchase the wireless frame as opposed to one that accepts memory cards or a USB slot.  Retail Price $99-$150

6.       Memory Cards – It seems every year larger and faster memory cards or available at a fraction of the cost of last year’s models.  Most photographers always want to upgrade their memory cards for both size and speed.  This will require you knowing what kind of memory card their camera utilizes. Retail Price $29-59

7.       Photomatix – This software is used to produce High Dynamic Range photography.  You can now capture high contract scenes without blowing out the highlights.  While there are other programs that do this, Photomatix is the best we have tested to date.  Retail Price $99

8.       Filters – While most photographers have circular polarizer and ND Grad Filters, some do not carry warming filters or special effect filters.  Cokin offers some affordable specialty filters for warming, cooling, and sunsets.   It is also important to include a carrying case to prevent the filters from scratches and damage.  The Cokin holder isn’t necessary as you can simply hold the filter over the lens to achieve the effect you desire.($29-49)

9.       Photography Vest – I went through several photography cases before finally settling for a photography vest.  It was actually a gift from a friend of mine that is a photographer.   I am more efficient now since I can easily have everything organized and accessible. No more forgetting to put something in your camera bag.

10.   Subscription to photo.net – While this site is free, a paid membership allows members unlimited gallery uploads, additional photo critique request, a personal imagePRO website, and a favorite image gallery.  It is a great way to show off your work and get advice on your pictures.  Retail Price $25

About the Author

As an avid outdoorsman that spends the majority of this time hiking, photographing, camping, mountain biking, and sharing my experience with others.

Circular polarizer, or circularly polarized filter for dSLR?

So I have a little question about polarized filters for digital SLRs... There are two types.

1: Circular Polarizer: polarization is in straight lines. Filter comes on a ring and you can rotate the filter to change the angle of polarization in your images.

2: Circularly polarized. Polarization is actually circular on the glass. No rotation.

So the question is, which is better. I've never bought a circularly polarized filter, I've always used the cheaper circular polarizers but I've been wondering if going the more expensive route would be better.

in any case, why would I choose one over the other, and is one better than the other?

Additionally: It seems that the correct name is Linear polarizer, though they are all labled Circular Polarizer. Or maybe the person who originally explained it to me was dead wrong, but I have this whole idea of Circular Polarizer vs Circularly Polarized stuck in my head and I need someone to knock it loose and correct my thinking.

I think that it probably was explained to you incorrectly. Let me take a stab at it:

Light is often described as being waves of energy. While this isn't totally true, it's good enough for what we're doing that we're going to assume it to be the case.

Anyway, light waves take on a sinusoidal shape as they travel through the air. Some, however, are moving up and down(relative to the ground), some are moving side to side, and some are somewhere in between.

The idea behind a polarizer is to get everything moving in the same direction-let's say, for our purposes, that we want everything moving up and down.

The way it does this is by having a whole bunch of slots(in our case vertical) that are about the width of a light wave. That way, waves traveling up and down will get through, but light traveling side to side will be completely blocked. For the ones somewhere in between, only the up and down component will get though. So, the waves coming out the back of a polarizer will only go up and down.

Because of how the filter looks on a microscopic level, we sometimes call this a linear polarizer.

Some cameras use special types of mirrors, often called semi-silvered mirrors or beam splitters, in the optical path. A beam splitter allows some light to pass though, while reflecting some. Due to the way they work, a beam splitter also acts as a polarizer.

Virtually all autofocus cameras depend on beams plitters for the autofocus system to work. Some Canon cameras in the '70s and '80s, such as my beloved F1s, use a beam splitter as part of the metering system, and some Canons over the years have even used a beam splitter in place of a conventional reflex mirror(Pellix, EOS-1nRS).

Anyway, one of the fundamental properties of polarizers is that they will black out when arranged so that their slots are perpendicular to each other. So, if using a conventional polarizer, it's possible that, if turned correctly, the polarizer will cause the beam splitters to black out completely.

To counteract that problem, sometimes a second filter is placed behind the main polarizer. The purpose of this second filter is to scramble the waves back to a random orientation, essentially turning the light back into unpolarized light.

This arrangement, for some strange reason, is called a circular polarizer.

Most polarizers for cameras, whether linear or circular, are mounted within a round rotating holder.

Two circular polarizing filters in action

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