slight haze like stuff on a polarizer filter

fstop · Joined: 11 Apr 2010 Posts: 29

I have a circular polarizer filter which is around 10 years old. It has always been kept in its plastic case when not in use.

I have noticed, having looked at it after quite a while, that there some sort of a haze on it. It is a bit difficult to describe. The haze is not uniform is in a sort of a pattern. One can also call it frost. The problem is that it causes flare in the photos (around bright edges).

I have tried all my options to clean it: naphtha, hydrogen peroxide + ammonia and also alchohol . Usually the first two are enough in all the glass that I have cleaned. But this haze like stuff, or frost like stuff, just won't go.

Time for a new filter? Any further ideas that I can try?

wilson.c · Joined: 18 Jan 2010 Posts: 363 Location: Hong Kong

I think it's time for a new filter. It could be the polarizing laminate just getting old. I had one that was delaminating from the edges.

Scheimpflug · Expire: 2011-11-18

Polarizers are actually made of multiple layers, and only the expensive Kaesemann polarizers are completely sealed at the edges. So it could be that the layers are separating, or that moisture or some organic contaminant has made its way into the foil center layer.

fstop · Joined: 11 Apr 2010 Posts: 29

Understood.

Thanks for your comments, guys.
Regards.