Tiffen 77GG1 77mm Glimmer Glass 1 Filter

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Cinebloom was made to be cheaper but all of the filters seem to sold out from time to time, and I think it’s pushing up prices. None of them are cheap 🙂 The Glimmerglass1 was more to my liking as it really seemed to only affect the parts of the picture it is supposed to and I may keep it for the next time I take pictures at a fair or do automotive photography during the blue hour. The foggy effect these filters give at night isn’t overly easy to replicate in post – at least for me – but in many situations the K&F 1/2 also yielded unexpected and/or undesirable (side) effects. The number of pictures where I thought it actually added something to them was rather small and life is definitely too short to always take a picture with and without filter to blend them together in post afterwards. Even after I introduced the thought that we were looking at sharpness, even after I set the stage, were your first thoughts when you looked at the images about sharpness? Or were they about color, about the ocean, and most of all about the dolphins?

All the photos are shot with the Fujifilm X-T3 + Fujifilm XF 35mm f2.0 R WR on a tripod. Test #1 – Statue at Vestre CemeteryFeeling is what matters, more than technical perfection. Sometimes ultra-sharpness contributes to that feeling. Sometimes a softness in the image contributes to that feeling. That’s where the Glimmerglass filter comes in. This filter, made by Tiffen, is one of a number of diffusion filters that do not simply “fuzz” the image but do something far more interesting. I bought one in a size to fit the new fast Fuji 50mm f/1.0 and thought it might be worthwhile to shoot this lens, which already has a sort of diffusion look built-in when shot at f/1.0, and to see what the combination would produce. These filters are made by several manufacturers these days and they come in different strengths. Filters with the same nominal strength from different manufacturers do not necessarily offer the same degree of the effect though, which makes it especially hard to find the best one for your needs. But followers have to, by definition, be following and that implies that somebody is out there in front. With diffusion filters that is certainly not me—adapting old lenses to modern cameras is a well-established corner of the photo world and diffusion fits into that same corner as well, although even there it’s sort of a niche, a corner within a corner. Perhaps we can add a bit to that little group—put the Glimmerglass on the fast Fuji 50 and see what happens?

ColorCore® Technology (per < link > The Tiffen ColorCore technology is a secret proprietary formula...) I have never been a huge fan of these so called “effect filters” but my friend Simeon Kolev showed a few cool pictures where he used these Diffusion filters to good effect, so I decided to give it a try. It’s fine, it’s an interesting look, it just starts to sort of blend after a while. Filmmakers, just like still photographers, tend to be fad followers. This look is going to look familiar to you. If you watch Netflix or AppleTV+ or Hulu or any of the rest you have seen diffusion, and sometimes lots of it. It’s everywhere as filmmakers turn to older lenses and other techniques to both add character to their work and to differentiate themselves from other TV series. The result, to my eyes, is that there are an awful lot of similar-looking shows out there, all with the missing reds, various intensities of glow around the light sources, flare and whatnot from the lenses. Sometimes the result is similar to what the Orton effect is achieving, the major difference is, that the Orton effect affects bright and dark parts of the frame alike, whereas the diffusion filters emphasize the brighter parts.People say that Glimmer Glass gives the most sharpness, I can’t really tell myself. The two Tiffen filters seem equally sharp, Cinebloom maybe a bit less sharp (maybe). I will try to demonstrate some of those digital effects here sometime in the not too far future. Let‘s see how it turns out.

What’s left? I own a Tiffen 49mm Circular Polarizer that I rarely use. I probably should use it more, because CPLs are great for reducing unwanted reflections. To some extent, it’s theoretically possible to mimic Color Chrome FX Blue with a CPL filter, I think, although I’ve never tried. I also have a Hoya Intensifier (a.k.a. Didymium filter or Starscape filter) that I’ve used a few times. I have some 49mm color filters for B&W film photography, but obviously those don’t work well on the X100V (I tried). I also have a Hoya 80A filter, which actually does work on the X100V, but I pretty much never use it. The effect of the Glimmerglass filter shows most obviously in the sun-bright portion at the top edge of the image where the white sun suddenly blooms, the white glow spreading out over the leaves and the tree trunk. There is a lowering of contrast—the Glimmerglass image might initially look dull in comparison. I’m not sure if there is a loss if resolution or not—higher contrast can give the illusion of sharpness and lowered contrast thus seems less sharp.The Glimmerglass series of filters also has a benefit of sparkling when viewed, which can add reassurance to your talent when shooting beauty; that way you can fully concentrate on the look of your shot." The quality and taste of the whole dish are limited by the worst ingredients. For that reason I would never use a wine for cooking that I would not dare to drink pure.

If I read it another way, it may be that the model is supposed to see the "Sparkle" in the filter - and that is supposed give the model the added confidence (?) Might be cheaper to just glue some glitter to the front of your camera?

The X100V doesn’t initially appear to be able to accept filters. There are no screw-in threads visible. But there’s a “secret” ring around the lens that unscrews to reveal threads, but these threads cannot accept filters. You need to buy an adapter to screw into those threads that has its own threads that filters can screw into. Make sense? For astrophotography the better way to highlight brighter stars in images may be the use of some of the quite good Samyang lenses which are known to show slightly undercorrected spherical aberration leading to a similar effect while maintaining comparably high contrast and resolution in the whole frame. In each of the image pairs that follow the Glimmerglass image is first, followed by the unfiltered image. thanks for this nice short review. I don’t like the idea of worsening the optical qualities of a good lens either. But indeed, the achievable looks may be quite nice. I think I’ll give some NiSi filters a try as well. In the filmmaking world you don’t have that same pressure to find the ultimate in sharpness. A moving image is extraordinarily forgiving of what would be unthinkable in still photography. A little unsharpness passes without comment in a movie while the still frame from that image would be cast to the darkroom floor. In the film days it was not uncommon for focus in a motion picture to be off a bit now and then (it’s still not as rare as you might expect). Even big-budget films went to print with misfocused scenes.