[TedW]

I recently bought a mid-level Hoya polarizer, multicoated. It had good reviews but my first use of it left me disappointed. Coming from film cameras back in the day I seemed to get better results with the linear canon filter that I recently found with my old gear.

So here is my question. If I am manually focusing with one of the older K lens that I found and love, can I successfully use my old linear polarizer on my k-50? Or is their more to it then just focus issues? If I can I would order me a cheap step up/down adaper and give the old canon filter a try.

[jatrax]

What about the polarizer disappointed you? One thing that you have to watch for is using it on wide angle lenses, anything less than about 20mm can in some cases give you a gradient effect that looks artificial. But that is due to the amount of sky covered, not the polarizer itself.

It is generally felt that a linear polarizer will affect both auto exposure and auto focus. But others report they use linear polarizers with no ill effect. I think the circular ones are easier to use, soI stopped using the linear one I have when I got the new ones.

Why not give it a try and see what happens?

[dms]

For most purposes a linear polarizer is fine. Some cameras AF and/or light metering can be affected. I use linear PL and have never had a problem w/ Pentax digital cameras. I don't use AF, and I have forgotten if pentax AF is affected and to what degree.It is reasonable to use linear PL, and only when you find problems do you go to circular. As far as multi-coating there are 4 surfaces involved so it is very costly and for most situation not worth it (to me). Are the linear PL and circular ones different in practice--as I hardly use PL and when I do it is linear--I have no experience.