Every once in a while I’ll be answering questions that came in for Photofocus the podcast on the blog. Today’s question comes from Daniel Yu.
“I’ve been looking into buying a 77mm circular polarizing filter. I see some filters are Coated and Multi-Coated. What is the difference between coated and multi-coated? Is it worth the extra cost? (It’s almost 50% more expensive).”
Daniel the coating on the filter is primarily designed to reduce or prevent lens flare and increase resistance to scratching. Generally speaking, multicoated filters do a better job than their less expensive counterparts. There is one other possibly significant factor. If you’re using inexpensive lenses, finding a filter that is multicoated (meaning coated on BOTH SIDES) is particularly important since it may help reduce the reflective nature of digital sensors. Old fashioned filters were always coated on one side only. This is fine for film cameras, but digital sensor cameras are prone to the reflection problem and may require filters that are coated on both sides.
Bottom line, if you’re going to use a filter, use a good one. I prefer the B+W filter brand. It is multicoated optical quality glass.
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This post sponsored by the Digital SLR Store
