UV - Absorbs the ultraviolet rays which often makes outdoor photographs hazy and indistinct. A muliti-purpose fine-weather filter for color as well as black and white films. Also serves as a permanent lens protector.
Circular Polarizer - Light rays which are reflected by any surface become polarised and polarising filters are used to select which light rays enter your camara lens. PL (Linear Polarising) and PL-CIR (Circular Polarising) filters have the same effect, but it is important that you choose the correct version for your camera. They allow you to remove unwanted reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as water, glass etc. They also enable colors to become more saturated and appear clearer, with better contrast. This effect is often used to increase the contrast and saturation in blue skies and white clouds. HOYA's polarising filters do not affect the overall color balance of a shot.
How to select the correct Polarising filter: Many of today's cameras use semi-silvered mirrors or prisms to split the light entering the viewfinder in order to calculate exposure and focusing distance. PL (Linear Polarising) filters can sometimes interact with these items to give unpredictable exposure or focusing. So we recommend that you choose a PL-CIR filter unless you have a manual focus camera which has no beam splitter.
NDX8 - In conditions of extreme light intensity, such as sunshine on snowy mountains or on the beach, or when using a camcorder, ND (Neutral Density) filters are recommended as essential.
Neutral Density filters are often ignored by photographers, but they have several uses and offer the possibility to achieve otherwise unachievable results. ND filters appear grey and reduce the amount of light reaching the film, they have no affect on color balance.
They have four main uses:
1. To enable slow shutter speeds to be used, especially with fast films, to record movement in subjects such as waterfalls, clouds, cars, seas etc.
2. To decrease depth of field by allowing wider apertures to be used, which helps separate subjects from their background.
3. To decrease the effective ISO of high speed film (ie: above ISO400) and allow it to be used outdoors in blight situations.
4. To allow cine and video cameras (which have fixed shutter speeds) to film subjects such as snow, sand or other bright scenes which would normally cause over-exposure.
