Posted by: Colin Sheldon
on Jan 1, 2009
Evin Grant's IR filter Tests
Finally, after a month of pleading and begging all the filter Co. to provide samples, and three days of testing, what have we learned?
First off the failures...
I truly believe that, although the Schneider True-Cut IR lives up to it's name, especially under tungsten light, the off axis color shifting issues make it useless on any lens shorter than 32mm. For me that rules it out.
Also the Tiffen NDIR filters do not seem to me to add much to the equation. Although they seem to attenuate a little farther into the red spectrum than the standard filters they are not capable of competing with either the Panchros or a Hot Mirror + ND together.
Not a loser but...
The Tiffen Hot Mirror/IRND 1.2 combo filter does the job but not any better than separate filters and arguably with more color shift. It also is the most expensive single filter with a list price of $600 ($450 street). This make it a specialty Item in my mind, really only suited to those who have to use clip on matteboxes and are very limited in filter trays. Although the Panchro 1.2 ND accomplishes everything this filter does for a little over 1/2 the price.
The Winners...
I'm going to address these solutions by price range because they all get the job done adequately but have varying degrees of cost and connivence associated with them.