Hi! I am about to buy a set of filters for B&W photography. I have been considering the Cokin System but I am not quite sure about it. It has (as far as I know) two big advantages: 1. It is quite versatile (You can easily combine two or even more filters, the handling is practical, etc.) 2. It is unexpansive (Yes, I am on low budget.)

BUT: a) I suppose it does not have any anti-reflective coating (They are made of plastic, ain't they?). Could you tell me in what degree this is a problem? I am afraid of flare problems. b) What about their optical quality? Are they reliable?

Could somebody make a little comparison 'Traditional (screw in) filters vs Cokin System'? Thank you very much. Matej

-- Matej (mhochel@fastmail.fm), February 02, 2002

Answers

Cokin filters are not great but are okay for most uses. I've had some screw in filters that were a lot worse. The Cokins are plastic of some type & scratch very easily. Fortunately a few small scratches usually won't show any degradation of image quality. Flare can be a problem with any uncoated filter, but Cokin does have a lens hood that mounts to the end of their filter adapter. These are not the type of filters you mount on the front of your camera all the time for lens protection. You just use them when you need them & put them back in their case afterwards, being careful to not touch them or let anything else touch them.

The best thing about square & rectangular filters is that the graduated filters are much easier to use and adjust to the position that you want the transition to take effect. The other good thing is they can be used with different sized lenses.

There are better square/rectangular filter systems out there and are even some that fit the Cokin P adapter. There is a lot of talk about Cokin's neutral density grad being a bit off color. If you shoot slides this can be trouble but for negative/print film they are fine.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), February 03, 2002.

Thank you very much for your explanation. I have got another question. I was told that the Cokins can distort the image when you use a telephoto lens (200mm or longer). Is that true? I would like to use the Cokin System for B&W photos. I am a beginner and right now I need just a basic set of filters for B&w. Do you think the Cokin would do the job? Should I buy the A or the P holder. I have got three lenses - 52mm. So the A holder would be ok but I was told that there are no other manufacturers that would fit the A holder. So it is a mess :o)

-- Matej (mhochel@fastmail.fm), February 07, 2002.