polarizer lens

[kathieanne13]

I just tried a polarizer lens for my Nikkon coolpix 4500 digital and the photos have round black corners on them. What am I doing wrong? Or is there something wrong with the polarizer lens?

[Greg McCary]

Stacking filters can cause this. Did you take your UV off?

[mjs1973]

Welcome to the site. This is a very common problem with wide angle shots and it's called vignetting (sp). The outer ring on the filter is showing up in your photos. To avoid this, take off any other filters you may have like Greg said. If you're still getting this, zoom in a bit. The wider the focal lenght, the more likely you're going to have this problem.

[another view]

Is the filter adapter that you're using to attach the polarizer a "generic" brand or a Nikon adapter? If Nikon has an adapter specifically for this camera, try that one instead with whatever filter size is needed. This should work better - and only use one filter at a time unless you need two of them, but a polarizer is the only filter I really use with digital.

[kathieanne13]

I used only the polarizer lens when I shot the photos with the black circles at the corners. No stacking! I don't know anything about a Nikkon adapter that should be put on before screwing on the polarizer lens? At allexperts.com I was told that my polarizer lens was too thick, that a thinner lens would solve the problem. But I will try using the zoom instead of shooting a wide angle photo and see how it works. Thanks.

[another view]

What you're describing is called "vignetting" and can be fairly common. I thought that with most or all of the Coolpix cameras that you had to use a filter adapter, but I could be wrong on that model. Nikon's filter probably won't vignette or at least not as much, but zooming out a little bit should take care of that - although that's not always an ideal fix. It's not that Nikon's filter is necessarily any better (but their polarizers are very good) but it should be designed to work with that camera.

[kathieanne13]

I tried a wide angle shot and got the black circles at the corners and then zoomed in a bit and they were gone. I would like to be able to use the polarizer lens for wide angle shots. I bought the lens on eBay and the seller said it was for a Nikkon coolpix 4500 digital. It's a Eitar 28mm circular polarizer lens. On the lens itself it says 28mm C-PL. Can anybody tell me if that is a Nikkon lens or if it should work on a Nikkon digital? If it were a Nikkon lens would it have their name on it? I should look up the ratings of Eitar lenses, shouldn't I. :idea: I got really gutsy and emailed the seller on eBay and he offered to refund my money if I send the lens back, even though I bought it back in April.

[payn817]

28mm is the right size. I'm not sure about the quality thing though, I only have one filter, a polarizer, and it's a hoya. However, this doesn't seem to be a quality problem, just a size problem.

Easiest solution IMO, would be to get a larger size filter, and attach it with a step up ring.

[another view]

If it was a Nikon accessory, it would have the name Nikon on it. It's probably the thickness of the filter that's causing the problem. Like I said, if Nikon has one, it probably would work fine (or at least better) at a wide angle - but would likely cost more.

Here's Nikon's digital site. I can't link directly to the page because it's a flash site, but click on Education and then Hall Of Fame. Choose the 4500, then More Info. On the left is a tab for the Live Manual. For some reason it's not working for me (with Firefox) but try it and see if you can get it to come up. They should list the catalog numbers of compatible accessories.