Quality Filters

New Rodenstock HR Digital Filters available.

Download brochure or see for product details below.

High-quality taking lenses create sharp, high-contrast images which are free from distortion. But what happens if it is too bright or if the light is not a neutral white, if there is too much UV radiation or if unwanted reflections occur on glossy surfaces? Or if black and white film does not convert the object colors into the gray values the photographer really wants? Then Rodenstock quality filters can help.

Filters should never impair the lens quality. No one is willing to obtain the desired effects at the cost of blur, flare or ghost images. Rodenstock hard coated quality filters made from high-grade optical glass guarantee that sharpness, contrast and color faithfulness are maintained even with the best lenses.

• Filters adapt the light to the film so that it sees like the eye – or just as it is necessary to realize the effects desired by the photographer. The human eye in cojunction with the brain as a feedback control circuit can adapt easily to the varying conditions of brightness, contrast and color hue and overlook effects which create falsification for the lens and the film and which can lead to overexposure or color shift.

• Filters can frequently completely eliminate such errors, or at least reduce them to a negligible level. But filters can do more than just remedy defects. Sometimes the photographer will want to produce a creative shot and so will deliberately use a filter to achieve a better effect by deviating from the natural image. In these cases, too, the photographer wants to enhance the result so that once again only the best filters are good enough.

It is an erroneous view that filters would be obsolete for digital photography because of the white balance function of the cameras and the manifold manipulations that may be done later with imaging software on the computer. The truth is that in many cases (e.g. UV/IR blocking filters, ND filters and polarizers) filters cannot be replaced by later manipulation via software, and that in other cases (conversion filters and softeners) filters are much more comfortabe and time saving in usage and provide much better results. On the other hand, imaging software allows different manipulations and corrections that cannot be executed with filters.

So the best method is to use the appropriate filters in exactly the same way as for analog photography, and then use imaging software for fine tuning – if it should still be necessary.