ghosting and abberation

[Jon Bickford]

just curious, from the clips that people have complained about ghosting and chromatic abberation in was there a protective/uv filter in front of the lens?

all of the HD engineering in the world isn't going to stop a $50 protective filter from creating problems, or a $200 one for that matter. it makes the lens far more susceptible to flaring as well. even on the XL2 this is a problem. Personally i never use a protective filter unless it's windy outside. the matte box the lens came with is far better impact protection anyway, and the problems are exacerbated by the immense depth of field of 1/3" cameras and the extreme clarity of HD.

[Pete Bauer]

In my case, yes, I always protect the lens with a filter. A Tiffen UV was on for all my tests. Time allowing, I'd be willing to repeat a subset of the tests this weekend without a filter.

[A. J. deLange]

I don't believe I'm seeing chromatic aberration but for the record the images I posted were made with a polarizing filter on the lens.

[Shannon Rawls]

You couldn't pay me to shoot without a protective UV filter on my lens.

As many times I see people touching and feeling and touching and feeling and smearing and touching and bumping and SCRATCHING the front of my cameras......NO WAY! I'd be damn if someone put a permanent scratch on my lens that you can see in the picture.

No way to stop Murphys Law....so if Murphy comes around, let him scratch or break that cheap UV glass...not my $2000 lens!

and if Chromatic Abberations is what I get for doing this...then HELLO CHROMATICS..WELCOME TO MY MOVIE!

- ShannonRawls.com

[Tom Hardwick]

I'm with you Jon. I too have abandoned the 'protective filter', and I too realise the degredation you can so happily add when using them with tiny 1/3" chipped camcorders. Yet I've used them with no qualms on my 35 mm gear for years.

I have a test I show people. I have two identical VX2000 cameras, one without any sort of filter and one with a well respected UV. I say 'well respected' because I was startled to see the expensive Tiffen I use is uncoated. Anyway, it takes but two minutes to have people unscrewing their 'protective' UVs and skimming them out across the lake, it's that demonstrative.

OK, if you're really up against it (rain, sand storms, sticky-fingered children) then go ahead, fit a filter; you're not after top quality footage. But if you're after the best your camera can give, junk the filter. Much better to protect the front element with a good, deep lens hood. Much better.

tom.

[John Jay]

Sometimes, having the two NDs in the chain can cause ghosting since they have flat surfaces which can cause all sorts of problems, better to use one internal ND and aN external on when the need arises.

Pete when you find time please test with a simple black white checkerboard chart - without filters or ND and set the white swatches to 100% zebra - this will enable us to plot the aberrations against distance from the centre?

Once again I believe that the XLHi has nearly zero Chromatic Aberration but something else...

[Jon Bickford]

yeah i went ahead and ordered a polarizer and protective filter from heliopan, the SH-PMC series of filters claims 8 coatings per side and are made from Zeiss optical quality glass and cost a pretty penny but I figure that will be the best I can do for the H1 and I imagine I will only mount them when i have to.

I still have a Hoya multi-coated filter but it's horrible for ghosting and abberation. like I said I don't think any price of UV filter won't have considerable adverse effects on a 1/3" HD camera.

since i'm going to be making payments on my H1 for 3 years I don't think any sticky fingered children will be allowed anywhere near my camera, for that matter no one other than myself and my trained first AC will be allowed to operate it, and that's better protection than any filter.

-Jon