Filter Reviews

Filters glare and at the same time captures the true colors of your computer.

Recommendation: Strong Buy

After exhaustive research to find the perfect fit for our needs and budget, we decided on the Hitachi 50gx49b. It has lived up to every expectation....picture clarity...ease of use...sound reproduction...etc.... the highest possible recommendation for a job well done Hitachi....Happy New Year!

This unit is a bit large, but not very heavy at all and has
a convenient handle on top, making it easy to move it to
another room, if necessary. The purifier both takes in and
expels air horizontally in all directions, taking in air
through the grille and expelling it very close to the floor
through the gap that runs around the unit just above the fan
switch. The lower of the two fan settings is very quiet and
is barely audible. The higher setting is audible but unless
you're a light sleeper (e.g., unable to sleep w/ an air
conditioner on), you could put this unit in a bedroom. The
handle has a threaded bolt built into it and screws on to
the top of the unit, securing the plastic grille/cover.
This makes opening up the unit to replace filters is as easy
as spinning the handle to unscrew it and lifting off the
cover. It's worth noting that we don't have really bad
allergies, so I can't provide a confident testimonial of
this product's effectiveness for a severe allergy sufferer,
but we definitely noticed an improvement in air quality in
our (small) apartment. (Of course, you have HEPA
certification and the promise of handling 192 cubic feet to
take at face value.)

Although I don't use Hoya filters myself on my Leica and Rollei cameras, I have friends that use them and are quite happy with them, and I've used them on their cameras, too. They're good quality and at a reasonable price, which is more than I can say for the Leica and Rollei filters. So I thought I'd put in a plug for Hoya here even if I don't own any myself. Actually, I recently was given a Canon EOS Rebel for my birthday, which will make a perfectly decent knockabout, everyday camera when I don't want to carry my more expensive ones, and I'll probably get a few Hoya filters for it.

A polarizing filter is great for reducing unwanted glare from reflections, and will even help to enhance color and produce more saturated colors as a result. Remember that the filter's greatest effect is proportional to the sine of the angle with respect to the sun, which means that at 90 degrees the effect is greatest, and at 180 degrees, the least. This is no problem when using an SLR since it's all through the lens metering. But if you're a rangefinder user like me, you'll need to take this into consideration when correcting for your exposure. You can do this by using a spotmeter set to the exposure settings on your camera and then taking a reading with and without the polarizing filter in front of the spotmeter, subtracting the two, and then dialing in that correction on your camera. It's not 100% accurate but it's pretty darn close. This will enable you to get the most out of your filter. When I haven't had a spotmeter, I've just used bracketting to make sure I get enough exposure. Although that wastes an exposure or two, it usually works okay for those times when you don't have your meter.

"Reduces light glare"

What a great review of, possibly, the most useful lence you could ever use.

ever taken a picture of a pong, or someone behind glass, and whats behind the glass or whater doesnt come out? even tho you can see them?
- This lense corrects that

Woundering how the pros get great colour (yea brit) skys?
-this lense

All it actually does is reduce the colour saturation (granted, it does it without increasing density, but thats not the point) this means reflections are almost invisible on glass and water, and it also increase contrast of pictures, making skys my stunning, nature more.. .natural (?)

Its a really usefull filter

I hope "J&R Music and Computer World" go out of business for they're comments, and they almost certainly not going to get business for them

Although I don't have chemical sensitivity problem, I am very sensitive to certain smells. Certain food like becon smell drives me crazy to the point I can't sleep. I've tried everything. I had five cans of air fresheners around the 928 sq.ft. apartment on top of the two heated scent oils. I had two TrueAir units in the kitchen that I ran 24/7. These just didn't work for me. After an exhausive research on air cleaners and filtrations, I finally gritted my teeth and bought this expensive IQAir because it had 12 lbs of activated carbon filter.

As soon as we got it, We tested the thing out right away by cooking spicy Italian suasage for dinner. We dragged the unit into the kitchen and let it run at the highest fan speed for a few hours. By the time we went to bed, the smell was gone. It used to take a few days with two TrueAirs to get rid of the smells. We dragged the thing back to the bedroom and let it run at the lowest setting the whole night to test out the HEPA pre-filter. The next morning my husband woke up without a stuffy nose.

PROs
- It works exactly as advertised.

- It kills odors completely. If you have a very sensitive nose, you'll know what it means.

- HEPA pre-filter. Allergy anyone?

- The fan is very quiet. The lowest two settings is hardly heard. Even at the highest setting, the fan hums rather than blasts.

- It is programmable. We can set it to run a few hours before we get home from work. That helps prolong the filter life. You can program the dust load, fine dust load, and gas load and it automatically calculate the filters' lives for you. So, if you live in a less dusty area, your filters last longer. It'll tell you exactly when to change the filters.

- It is a solid machine. No flimsy parts.

- It covers 900 sq.ft. One unit is enough for an entire apartment.

CONs
- The caster wheels work fine on a hard surface floor. They don't move effectively on carpetted floor. I found it easier to half lift, half drag the unit between the kitchen and the bedroom. Because the heavy carbon filters are on the top part of the unit, this thing is top-heavy. When you drag it and the wheels got stuck, it tends to tip over.

- The assembly instruction sucks. It doesn't show you how to put the carbon filters together. You pretty much have to guess what goes where.

NOTEs
- When you unpack the carbon filters, be sure to wipe them really good with damp paper towel. Do not use a cloth towel unless you plan to throw the towel away. Of course, the instruction doesn't tell you this. (It doesn't tell you anything, actually.) I figured that out on the second filter.

- Amazon website listed this as 1200 sq.ft. coverage area. But the manufacturer's site says 900 sq.ft. The model that covers 1,200 sq.ft. has twice the carbon capacity and costs twice more.

- Neither one of us has chemical sensitivity so we can't test that feature. However, I notice that the Clorox smell doesn't linger on for half a day the day I do laundry like it did before.

Ever sit in front of a computer for hours on end trying to type a last minute essay for class? Studies have shown that glare from a computer can place strain on your eyes, thus making you feel a lot more tired in a shorter time than if you reduced the glare. I have one of these on my screen and can last longer at my desk than otherwise. It's definitely a must for students and those that spend a lot of time in front of a screen.

Does just what it is supposed to do.

This color filter set is an excellent buy if you want to enhance visual details and increase observable contrast of the moon and the planets. For less than forty dollars (US$ 40.oo) you will get a set of four filters that will tread into the barrels of any eyepiece with a 1.25" outside barrel diameter (O.D.) including all Meade 1.25" (inches) O.D. eyepieces. Although the package says that the filters are for use with the Meade ETX 60AT and ETX 70-AT telescopes I have used them in a small 4 1/2 inches Tasco Reflector and also with my ten inches Meade Dobsonian to enjoy beautiful views of Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon. The filters are light yellow, light red, light blue and neutral density. The first three are useful to enhance the belts of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn and the surface of Mars while the neutral density filter is of great help in order to reduce the glare that sometimes plagues lunar observation. The filters are individually packed in a plastic case for convenient storage and transportation. A great buy!

This mask allows superimposition of two pictures for effects like placing my daughter's face in the center of a sunflower or on a dollar bill. The amusement is worth the cost. It performs the equivalent of cutting and pasting two images together, provided the shape is a circle. Fun to use.