Home > Consumer Reviews > B+W 72mm Circular Polarizer MRC Filter

If you have quality glass, like the Canon L series, then you need quality filters. the B+W are made from ground optical glass, not a piece of plain glass like as you see in the tiffen and hoyas filters (even the expensive ones are still cheap grade glass). Only B+W and Heliopan put the time and $$ into making filters that are designed to be used with your quality lenses and not distort and reduce the optical quality of them. I have 2 MRC, 1 Kaesemann, and 1 slim one, and I love them. I have a Heliopan as well, and I prefer the B+W a little bit more as its a brass ring and not aluminum and thus does not bind up as easy, and thats important when you want to change filters quickly! I like the MRC the best of them all, the slim one is a pain since you cant put a normal canon lens cap on it, but the Heliopan slim one you can... If you use a cheap filter on a pro grade lens, you are wasting your money, on the lens and the filter as the filter just hurt your image quality, and thus you lowered the quality of your lens! In filters, like lenses, you get what you pay for!!!

I shoot in all kinda of weather conditions, from sunny and warm, to windy and cold or snowy, and I have never had any major issues with any of my B+W filters acting up! I prefer the MRC or even the Kaesemann over the entry level one, but even their entry level one is ground glass, so you still get a great quality filter at that price point.

I have been happy with this polarizer so far when taking pictures of blue skies. The polarizer really accentuates the rich blue of the sky. The advertising material suggests that you won't see a significant change in f-stop with the polarizer on. However, I noticed that there is a significant difference in the f-stop, particularly in overcast or low light conditions. Some pictures I took with the polarizer on came out blurry when the camera adjusted for the lighting by keeping the shutter open longer. Fortunately, I tried all of this out quickly enough. Just to warn you.

After seeing the subtle polarizing effects in my shots with this filter (clouds, water, other reflective surfaces), I probably could have gotten by with a lower priced circular polarizing filter. But I wanted the least light attenuation and best image quality, so I went with this one. This polarizer can save a lot of time with the post processing of some dSLR images. I'm quite happy with it - it's easy to adjust (unless the lens hood is in place, then it's a bit trickier, but no fault of the filter) - front rim lip is ridged for gripping, and filter turns easily (but is not too loose). I noticed a 1 to 2 stop difference with the filter in place, depending on the amount of polarizing adjusted in, but I'd only hold 1 stop against the filter since the glare you're trying to squelch is unwanted light anyway. The inside of the housing is threaded and so will hold lens caps that rely on this threading for attachment. Service and shipping was excellent, great transaction!

If you're confused as I was, here's a tip:
This is the regular circular polarizer with Multi-Coating. The Kaesemann circular polarizer with Multi-Resistance Coating is the other item

http://www.amazon.com/Kaesemann-Circular-Polarizer-Coated-Filter/dp/B0000BZL8W/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1222740876&sr=8-3

It seems that the Kaesemann has a higher quality reputation, and since they're priced almost exactly the same as of now, I would buy the Kaesemann one.

Had a problem with Amazon. Switched to a credit card that was different from the one stored on Amazon. Purchased 3 items from different vendors and had to update my credit card record with Amazon 3 times.