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[OM] Mirrorless - circular or linear polarizer?

Subject: [OM] Mirrorless - circular or linear polarizer?
From: usher99@xxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2014 20:03:52 -0500 (EST)
CN writes:
>>There are two types of polarizing filters readily available, linear 
and
>>"circular", which have exactly the same effect photographically. But 
the
>>metering and auto-focus sensors in certain cameras, including 
virtually
>>all auto-focus SLRs, will not work properly with linear polarizers
>>because the beam splitters used to split off the light for focusing 
and
>>metering are polarization-dependent. Linearly-polarized light may 
also
>>defeat the action of the Anti-aliasing filter (Low-pass filter) on 
the
>>imaging sensor.

I am not convinced linear and circular are "exactly" the same 
photographically all things being equal.

The extinction coeeficients of the polarizing material vary by wave 
length, thus the blue shift. The extent depends on the
exact brand/material---see the pol tests links I provided.



To quote Roger Clarke:

"The visible spectrum, violet to blue, to green, yellow, orange, and 
red, covers about a factor of 2 in wavelength. That means that the 
circular polarizer will not make perfectly circularly polarized light 
for all colors. At wavelengths away from that designed for the 
quarter-wave plate, the light will be elliptically polarized. What this 
means is that as you rotate the circular polarizer when viewing a 
polarized source through your camera, there will be a slight color 
change. For example, on polarizers I have used, a scene with a lot of 
polarized light becomes slightly "warmer" when a circular polarizer is 
used (this means a color shift to the red). Such small color shifts can 
be easily corrected, if desired, by a change in white balance in 
digital camera images. For mountain scenes, or scenes with a lot of 
blue sky illuminating the scene, in addition to the sun, the warming 
color can help make a more pleasant image. "

Thus the circ pol may have less blue shift even if it had the same 
effect quashing reflections--thus the origin of the impression that 
linear pols
have more effect. (that is my theory anyway) The quarter wave retarder 
is not color neutral.

Good point though as no semi silvered mirrors that caused trouble with 
linear pols (even in OM4t) and PDAF in DSLR are present in mirrorless,
so why wouldn't linears be fine. I don't understand the effect of 
linear pol on the AA filter though and perhaps the explanation will 
result in a headache but am curious.

Not a physicist, Mike




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