[Leica] Filters and Filter Mounts

[benedenia at gmail.com (Marty Deveney)]

Of relevance to this thread is that a UV/IR filter is something that
Harrison & Harrison don't make.  It is a filter which removes, by optical
interference, ultra-violet and infrared light but allows the passage of
visible light.  Infrared causes colour contamination with the Leica M8 when
it comprises a large proportion of the reflected light from a subject.

Harrison and Harrison, unlike, say, Holland and Holland, my favourite "H&H"
company, also don't appear to have a web presence, which makes them much
harder to access outside the US.  But I do remember that they are located on
"Thunderbolt Drive", someplace in the US, which I thought was a very
excellent name for a street.

In 1999 I ordered some filters from them and when they arrived (in Prague,
after a lengthy transit) I found that they were uncoated.  They might be
flat, but without good multicoating, a filter is just an optical millstone
around the neck of the kind of modern lenses, which all have excellent
multicoating, that I use.  Maybe they are coated now or maybe I ordered from
the wrong range, but I didn't go back.

If it can't be a leica UV/IR filter, I like the B+W MRC and the Heliopan
SH-PMC filters.

Marty

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 2:27 PM, Marc James Small <marcsmall at 
comcast.net>wrote:

> At 12:41 AM 3/26/2009, Henning Wulff wrote:
>
> >Over the years I have tried and bought many filters. In the 70's and
> >80's, about 1/3 of the filters were poor quality which introduced
> >noticeable degradation. A large part of this was a lack of
> >plano-parallel surfaces. Harrison and Harrison were the worst
> >offenders, and almost all their filters failed the most basic tests.
> >Many Hoyas and Tiffens of the time did as well. Leica and Nikon did
> >not. I'm not going near H&H again. I just tried to find a website
> >describing their offerings, but can't find one. Only an aol e-mail
> >address. I don't know if they produce the requisite IR/UV cut
> >filters, but if they do the prices are presumably not likely to be
> >out of line with others on the US market.
>
> I will cheerfully confess to not having a clue as to what an "IR/UV cut
> filter" might be when it is at home, so you are on your own on that one.
>
> In the 1970's, there were a number of tests conducted on the major filter
> brands by a number of analysists.  H&H won every one of these for the
> fineness of the parallel surfaces on its wares.  They got downchecked as
> they do not do dyed-in-the-mass glass, but that of little concern outside 
> of
> technical and scientific applications.  Your mileage flies in the face of
> the industry findings, I fear.  That was at a time, by the way, when Zeiss
> and B+W were trying to break into Hollywood and H&H shut 'em down cold.  
> You
> might want to try them again -- and get a REALLY good mike to check out the
> parallel nature of their surfaces.
>
> The H&H filter adapters are magnificent.  Tired of the junk Kenko sells?
>  Try the H&H B50 Hasselblad Series adapter ring or the Bayo III for a
> Rolleiflex TLR.  Absolutely wonderful.
>
> I almost never use filers -- but I do use H&H filter adapters.  When I need
> to use a filter, I generally use one of theirs or a Franke & Heidecke or
> Leitz filter.
>
> Marc
>
>
> msmall at aya.yale.edu
> Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
>
>
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