Schneider One-stop vs reg. linear polarizer

[Marcia Janine Galles]

Has anybody ever used the Schneider One-stop linear polarizer on their Pani vs. the "regular" Schneider? The reason I'm asking is cuz it's not as strong, and I'll be doing a lot of outdoor run and gun where there's both shade and hot, direct sun. Polarizers make me a tad nervous. Don't want what I get in post to look like mud. OTOH, if you're stuck filming mid day, it's tough to come out with decent looking saturated shots any other way. I'm just not sure how strong to go. Can't afford two.

Thoughts?

Thought of a P.S., when I made a call about this, the guy told me to "check with my manufacturer" as most video cameras, he said, were better with a circular vs linear polarizer. True with the Pani?

[Charles Papert]

Marcia:

To me, pola's are one the least scary filters to use, I wouldn't be nervous about them. As far as looking like mud, that would only be the case if you were exposing manually and did not give the approximately two stops of exposure compensation required, or you were shooting at dusk and didn't have enough light for that 2 stop loss. The only other thing that can happen that might be objectionable is losing sparkle out of a scene by killing the reflections, but that's something you can easily see on your monitor.

My recommendation is to go with the standard Pola for maximum effect which you can always dial back. Remember to "touch it up" often, as you change your orientation to the sun it will need tweaking to taste. It's not a set-and-forget filter.

The circular vs linear debate continues. My stand is that linear is fine with all video cameras that I have used.

[Marcia Janine Galles]

Thanks, Charles. The response is much appreciated. But what exactly do you mean by "touch it up often?" I have a less expensive matte box that doesn't turn, so once it's in, it's in. Or were you refereing to tweaking exposure frequently?

[Charles Papert]

Marcia, the physics of light scattering in an outdoor environment require one to adjust the polarizer for maximum effect depending on your orientation to the sun, if you are simply looking to darken skies. However, there are many other uses of a polarizer; if you are attempting to remove reflections from glass, such as shooting through a windshield, that may require a different rotation of the pola than if you were shooting the sky just above it. In that instance you would have to make the choice which effect is more desirable. Similarly, if you are shooting across water, it may appear that the pola is taking out all the pretty little reflections on the surface and the water photographs "dead". In that instance, you may want to dial up the effect a little, but still have some polarization occur to knock down the sparkles so that they aren't too hot. I will typically adjust my polarizer for every shot.

In a run-and-gun situation as you described, if you are shooting handheld all over the place your best scenario is to try to guess which is your beauty angle and maximize the pola for that.

Regardless of shooting angle and polarizer orientation, once you have made the approximately 2 stop correction, you won't have to adjust the exposure for the filter again. In other words, rotating the pola does not require an exposure adjustment.