[Driftwood]

My go-to's for B&W (usually HP5) are O, Y/G, Y and CPL. It does depend, though, on the particular film you are using and what it's sensitive to. It also depends on the subject matter you choose and what effects you are after.

[Apet-Sure]

On my last film outing, around the year 2000, we were in Washington state to celebrate my aunt & uncle's 50th wedding anniversary. We drove to Mount St. Helens to see how it looked 20 years after the eruption (still like a lunar landscape). I took many shots from the Johnston Ridge Observatory area, which is at some considerable elevation. Later on when I got my pictures back from the processors, all those shots were fogged because I forgot to put on my UV filter! I was so mad at myself.

I have a whole bunch of filters I've been thinking of getting rid of since I no longer shoot film, including many of those mentioned above. Most are 49mm, but not all. If you will pay the shipping aslyfox, you can have them (optionally including a small contribution of your choice for my upcoming Newfoundland trip ). PM me if you are interested, and I will dig them out and send you a list of what I have.

[Astro-Baby]

I used to have a massive filter collection, a monster pile of Hoya and Cokin for various effects, soft focus, soft focus spot, gradient color filters, star points etc but the ones that got the most use were always the UVs for lens protection plus pretty much what Alex suggested which would be;

Yellow dark and light for bw film
Red for bw film plus IR
Variable polariser to darken skies for color film
NDs to allow me to shift speeds downwards

These days I pretty much just use the polariser and the UVs but will probably get round to replacing the yellow filters as I plan on doing pretty much just bw film going forward.

[Marktax]

Not quite - it's not a film/digital issue but a camera issue. If the camera has a semi-transparent mirror or beam splitting prism, then you need a CPL - all AF SLRs and the odd manual focus exception like the LX. if not then a linear polariser is fine (although if buying an expensive filter, a CPL is more versatile).

Right, and thank you, Johnha. My memory of my pre-AF days was bolloxed.

[ChrisPlatt]

I don't like viewing focusing and composing through a deeply colored filter,
so on my SLRs I use only polarizers and ND filters, i.e. clear uncolored filters.

I use a yellow-green filter for BW - but only on my rangefinder cameras etc.

Chris

[TwoUptons]

I don't like viewing focusing and composing through a deeply colored filter,
so on my SLRs I use only polarizers and ND filters, i.e. clear uncolored filters.

I use a yellow-green filter for BW - but only on my rangefinder cameras etc.

Chris

That's a really good point. Just don't forget then to adjust the exposure...

My wife's Minolta 7 adjusts automatically, but I forget sometimes with my Petri rangefinder...

-Eric