Is there a big difference in quality of different brands of filters?

[PhotoGuy]

Is there a big difference in quality of different brands of filters?

[anywherepics@aol.com]

some filters vary in their quality because of the way they are designed. It's a preference of desired effect. I favor the Nikon Soft 1, whereas some say it's not worth the price difference. You have to look through an individual filter so see what you like, or look at a sample photo with and without. I like Nikons in general becaue the trhread ring is thinner and I like to stack filter. But I can't afford them as a general rule, so I have Tiffens mnostly, but keep Nikons on for protection. L1BC (sky)

[sellis]

Shooting resolution targets in the studio we noticed something we did not really expect to see. When shooting the targets with a filter over the lens (UV-1 type) our film (Kodak B&W T-max 100) showed us that there is a measurable loss in sharpness when using a filter on your lens. We also found that a B+W filter gave us better resolution readings than a Tiffen filter of the same type. All the test photos were shot with a Canon A2e body with a Canon 200mm f-2.8 L fixed telephoto lens, in both autofocus (including "eye controlled focus") and manual focus modes. All the shots brought back the same results. Our studio and lab is located in Omaha NE, and can be found on the web at: http://www.hamiltoncolorlab.com
Thought this might interest some of you.

Steve Ellis
Email: sellis@tconl.com