Don't worry about it. Trying to translate what the human eye sees into what the film (or--"now-a-days"--camera sensor) sees, can require a bit of experimentation before it snaps into place. The eye can quickly and automatically adjust for variances in light across a scene without you even noticing it, so how you "see" the scene is not a good indicator of how the film will see it. Always break the scene down into light and dark areas before analysing for exposure.
Interesting. But, for the price, I guess you can't too wrong.
Toss the "fluorescent" filter into a drawer, and forget about it. It's entirely useless.
When you screw the hood onto your lens, be sure that the larger tulip petals are on top and bottom, and the shorter ones are at right and left. Try to get the corners lined up perfectly, or you'll have some awkward clipping/vignetting that'll just piss you off.
I normally stay away from after-market hard lens hoods, and just spend the extra money on ones made specifically for the lens I have. The lens-specific hoods usually have a bayonet mount that will always line up correctly; and, they are reversible, which saves a ton of space in the gear bag. I do have one cheap collapsible rubber hood, which is also a good choice as you can leave them on the lens, and collapse them when you don't need them, or when you're putting gear back in the bag. The drawback is that they can get a little warped while stowed in the ear bag.
For a 52mm front element you'll most likely rarely need the hood except in situations where the sun is coming at you from harsh forward angles causing lens flare (those nasty purplish hexagons). If the sun is in frame, the hood is useless, no way around it.
This is probably a good kit to start with, anyway. And, from the reviews on Amazon, the polariser appears to do what it's supposed to.
In addition to Duncan's trick for determine where best to point the camera to optimise the polariser's effect, don't forget that the polarisers are mounted on a rotating ring that gives you the ability to weaken or strengthen the polarisation ("lighten" or "darken" the image) for the best punch in definition and contrast. You will actually see the change through the viewfinder as you rotate the polariser, so don't worry about needing to guess at this.
However, the hard plastic lens hood will make using the polariser a challenge, so you might not want to use both at the same time.
Keep in mind, these are "extreme budget" pieces. When you're done practising with them, you might still want to save for Tiffen or low-end Hoya polariser and UV filters. They will produce far better images than the budget Vivitar, and still shouldn't break the bank.
Bookmarks