I noticed some unusual results after reviewing old photographs taken with a CPL filter. especially when attached to a high-powered zoom lens.
Page Last Edited : Monday, 9th of June 2025.
© Dave Rowlands. All Rights Reserved.
A few years ago, well over ten years, I got myself a Circular Polarising (CPL) filter, it is designed to reduce glare and reflections, especially from water, glass, and other shiny surfaces, and it worked quite well until I tried it on my Nikon Coolpix P600.
I've used the Selens range of filters for years and still have some from when they started in 2011. The CPL filter (Shown Below) fits onto lenses with a 62mm filter thread, and I can't remember which lens I got it for, but with different adapters, I can use it on all the lenses I have. Sometimes the adapter costs more than buying a dedicated filter and doesn't work too well when the lens rotates as you are focusing.
It came with it's own case and cleaning cloth.
The filter was easy to get out as it had spaces where your fingers fit to get hold of it.
This has to be at least 10 years or more old.
As someone who doesn't pixel peep very often, something caught my eye when looking through some older photographs taken with the P600. Pixel peeping on a small sensor like the one used in the P600 is never a good idea, so I purposely took some photographs using a few of my Tamron lenses on my M43 gear. The few photographs below were taken with the Tamron 200mm f3.5 on my E-M1 II, I use that camera as I can record the lens details that will show up in the EXIF data.
It was just a spur of the moment thing while looking for something I could easily compare.
100% Crop of that beautiful chicken wire fence photograph on the left.
Roughly the same boring fence photograph but somehow it doesn't have the same punch and you can actually see the difference in such a small photograph.
100% Crop and you can see the difference now between using the CPL or not.
After trying a few different prime lenses along with various zoom's the number of elements in the lens can actually affect the final image. The CPL filter didn't cost a fortune but it wasn't "Cheap" either and adding another layer of glass to the front of your lenses was never a good idea in the first place. I wonder why they never incorporated polarising filters into the original lens design in the first place.
The original reason for this post was viewing this image which impressed me because of how the colours looked, but then I zoomed in.
In the 100% crop above you can see the chromatic aberrations caused by having the CPL filter on the front of the lens, it's almost as if two of the same image has been badly overlaid.
