Home > Consumer Reviews > B+W 65-016895 58mm Circular PolarizerSlim Filter

I think a polarizing filter is a must for outdoor photography. Polarizers add a punch, especially clouds and sky, that cannot be duplicated, even with the magic of Photoshop.
It is a must if you are shooting water in the sun, often lets you see below the surface of streams and shallow ponds.
This particular filter is built thin enabling it to be used with a wide angle lens without vignetting. I have used it with a 10-20 mm lens with excellent results.
Always use filters whose quality matches your lens - this filter is excellent and will suit the very best lenses.

Like a lot of other photographers, I consider a polarizing filter to be really valuable for outdoor photography, especially landscape work. My 24-70mm Zeiss Vario-Sonnar, on a Sony A900 (full frame), will vignette at the widest angle with any polarizer but this slim profile design B+W. Such vignetting is more bothersome than fatal, but sometimes I have to use the photograph right up to the corner edges and vignetting there creates a lot more work in Photoshop. The B+W , slim line, 77MM Circular Polarizer does NOT vignette.

For the price I paid, I expected a lot more. Yes, the glass is super fine quality, which is what you want in a filter. There is no point putting a piece of cheap glass on a $2000 lens to ruin it for you.

The thing is, I didn't really notice *that* much of a difference from my old Tiffen filter, which is $90 cheaper. The one thing that really got to me about the B&W filter is the fact that you can't put your lens cap over the filter, which you can do with the Tiffen. I found this to be very annoying as I was traveling and wanted to protect that nice piece of glass, so I had to unscrew it, put it back in its nice little case, and then put my lens cap on before I could get going on. This was too time consuming for me, and I ended up missing a lot of great shots.

A polarizing filter is an essential accessory to keep in your bag. The thin mount lets you do wide angle images without vignetting at 18mm (in my case) on a digital sensor not full frame. This one comes with its own lens cap because of the thin mount. Yours probably will not hold. The cap says Schneider (an optical glass company known for high quality glass), so I expect that this filter is made with this glass. Of course, the B+W name is also a name known for high quality filters so I wouldn't expect anything less. Priced at a resellers price, (at the time that I purchased it), I feel that this filter is a real bargain. I would recommend it highly to anyone looking for this level of filter. Here is the link for the product. B + W 62mm Circular Polarizer Wide Angle Slim Mount Coated Glass Filter

Nice polarizer filter. I am always using this on my lenses when out in daylight. Great quailty. Drops your exposure down several f stops.