HT stands for Hi-Trans, a proprietary multi-coating process, but are these Made In USA filters unique?

The Tiffen Company, based in Hauppauge, Long Island  has been manufacturing filters for over 75 years using proprietary ColorCore technology, an exclusive lamination process that bonds the actual filter material permanently in between two layers of optical glass.

The bid advantage: Enhance control over filter color, density, and absolute uniformity. The high performance and consistency of Tiffen filters is one reason The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (awarders of the coveted Oscars) presented Nat Tiffen, one of the company's founders, with a Technical Achievement Award for the consistent filter quality back in 2000.

No Warming Filter

©Jason Schneider

Warming Filter

©Jason Schneider

Despite their technological prowess Tiffen was reluctant to jump on the bandwagon when competitive filter makers started multi-coating their filters about 20 years ago. The reasons: ColorCore technology eliminated the need to polish and multi-coat their filters to achieve uniformity, and the multi-coatings being used were quite fragile and easily scratched and abraded. Once a multi-coated filter is scratched it’s compromised no longer suitable for critical work. In other words, until recently, the risks outweighed the benefits. 

    No Warming Filter       Warming Filter        

©Jason Schneider

Nevertheless, multi-coating both exterior surfaces of a filter does increase its light transmission and minimize reflections, so Tiffen began to develop a superior multi-coating process to address the deficiencies.

Their goal: A coating process that combined high-performance optical parameters, ease of cleaning, and extreme resistance to scratching and abrasion. The result, announced in 2008, is Tiffen Digital HT Filters featuring an exclusive Titanium Multi-Coating claimed to deliver excellent anti-reflection and light transmission characteristics along with an easy-to-clean, extremely scratch resistant surface. To check out these claims, we obtained 7 different Tiffen HT filters in the 72mm size along with step-up rings that allowed us to mount them on the 52mm and 49mm threads on most of our lenses. 

4-Point Star Filter

©Jason Schneider

The first thing you notice when you take Tiffen Digital HT filters out of their boxes and slide them out of their lined nylon pouch cases is that the all have titanium-finish filter rings that are beautifully made and feature a milled front edge for easy mounting and removal. These anti-reflective locking rings are low profile to facilitate stacking when needed and will not cause physical vignetting even when they’re used with ultra-wide-angle lenses. Multi-element HT filters, like the adjustable HT 4-Point Star and HT Circular Polarizer we have separate milled front rings that cane be turned, plus fixed milled rings for mounting.  The front rings on both turn with a smooth, well damped action and precision feel— a clear indication of high quality.  Tiffen also uses Water-White Glass of the highest grade in manufacturing these filters, and that’s one of the main reasons they cost more than conventional filters. 

After shooting with these filters for several weeks we can confirm that the images we shot with the Tiffen HT filters are completely free of visible distortion or loss of definition compared to images shot without any filter. We especially liked the Circular Polarizer that eliminates reflections on glass and water, enhances clouds, and selectively enhances color contrast, the HT 4-Point Star lets you adjust the look of the star patterns in specular highlights, and the HT Clear/ND filter with its feathered split that allows you cut the exposure of sky or foreground seamlessly without affecting the rest of the image. These are effects you can'tachieve with digital filter apps, even the versatile Tiffen Dfx filter-emulation software. We’re also liked the subtle, beautiful, and predictable warming effect of Digital HT 812 Warming Filter, a very useful filter that’s exclusive to the Tiffen line.

How well does the Digital HT Titanium Coating on Tiffen HT filters stand up to ropugh and ready cleaning procedures and how easy it is to remove typical grease and grime without using lens tissue, a microfiber cloth, etc? To find out we placed greasy thumbprints smack in the middle of a few different HT filters and then attempted to clean them off with whatever we had on hand. Anyone who’s tried this knows that completely removing grease or oil from a coated glass surface is not easy, even with the right stuff. What you usually wind up with is a thin residue of muck being thinly deposited over the filter’s surface. Well, we used Kleenex tissue on two of the filters and an even more abrasive paper towel on the third. We didn’t breathe on the filters or use anything like alcohol or lens cleaner to ease the process. We simply dry-wiped them with a circular motion until the thumbprints were gone. 

©Jason Schneider

The good news: In no case was there any visible residue left on the filters, and the multi-coating was notdamaged in the slightest. To prove this we held the filters up at various angles and examined them with a 60X loupe. To make sure, we asked two photographer friends to check out the filters to see if they were sparkling clean. The verdict: They were clean as a whistle.

©Jason Schneider

The verdict: Tiffen Digital HT optical filters are very well made and beautifully finished using excellent materials, and the Titanium HT Multi-Coating is sufficiently robust to stand up to any reasonable cleaning method short of sandpaper or steel wool. All 7 filters we used performed perfectly for their intended purposes and we can recommend them to any serious enthusiast or pro. 

Tiffen HT filters do cost more than conventional filters, but they are a one-time purchase that will last forever and they never go out of style. Street prices for a clear glass HT lens protector in the 52mm size is $59.95, and $159.95 for the Circular Polarizer. The list prices of a twin-pack start at $139.09, and the 3-filter Digital HT neutral density kit has suggested prices starting at $186.49.