Review on 📸 Hoya 58mm Softener A Screw-in Filter: Enhancing Your Photography with Subtle Softness by Joshua Douglas

I spent the weekend testing this filter. Not bad! The Hoya has many more but much smaller "lenses" on the glass surface than the Zeiss Softar. In terms of durability I would say this is a cross between Zeiss Softar I and Softar II. Of course, the price isn't even in the same galaxy as the Zeiss filter. you can't complain too much about that. I was looking for a filter for my Canon EOS digital cameras. And also. Don't waste your money on Zeiss. I was concerned that _any_ soft effect filter using lenses might not work with some modern lens designs or give very strange results. The Zeiss lens concept works very well on medium and long lenses of general Gauss design and even on retrofocus lenses when the lens is set to a larger aperture. More modern lenses with internal focusing and many other elements may not work very well. I can say that the Hoya filter works well on the Canon 100mm f/2.8 USM, 50mm f/1.4 USM and 28mm f/1.8 USM. And that's even with a 28mm lens closed to about f/5.6. The Zeiss Softar produces noticeable "ball" artifacts when used with wider lenses and smaller apertures, but I suspect the Hoya's flatter nature makes it less prone to this. Lenses. As for the "effect", the effect is very pleasing, definitely good for a woman's portrait, maybe too strong for a man's portrait, except for the most glamorous guy. Pastoral pictures are possible in fabulous quality. The Hoya Soft A tends to have pronounced bleeding at larger apertures, which becomes more controllable when the lens is closed, which is exactly what the Zeiss Softar does. Soft backlighting is good for portrait photography. Glaring highlights can distract from the overall look of an image when using this type of filter, since the "bleeding" over parts of the image that you more or less want to "keep" (e.g. the face) can be excessive. There is no noticeable color change with this filter. Hoya Soft A does not cause focus shift when using SLR cameras or mirrorless (dual pixel) focusing systems. Soft A is the "weaker” of the two perks offered by Hoya. Soft B is a stronger option. The filter I received was cloudy with a cloudy residue, most likely due to aging foam "protection" in a hard storage box combined with long, long unopened sitting on someone's shelf. However, a gentle cleaning with dish soap and running (cool) water removed the haze and we're restored to good as new with perfect "clarity" (if you can call a soft filter clean). I am happy with this filter but will probably not go with Hoya Soft B as Soft A works well for my purpose and the effect of Soft B would be overdone (but very useful for glamor photography).