Filters

If you keep a filter on your lens at all times for protection, you're about to be jealous of Hoya's new ultra-hard HD2 glass filters. Using their exclusive hardened optical glass technology, the 1mm thick lenses are much stronger than typical glass. Hoya claims they're four times as strong, and after watching the video below, we're inclined to believe them.

Many photographers keep some sort of filter on their lenses at all times — even if it's just a UV filter to stop the glass from getting scratched. But what do you do when a filter gets hopelessly stuck? Photographer Craig Pulsifer was faced with exactly that problem, and the method he says was advised by a Canon Professional Service technician is more than a little scary.

Lee Filters are extremely well regarded filter makers, and this video shows just what goes into one of those pieces of neutral-density resin that we stick in front of our lenses. While you might think something as seemingly straightforward as squares of clear material with a slight gradation would be easy to construct, this factory tour from 2010 proves otherwise.

A new report from the New York Times claims that Facebook is preparing to roll out Instagram style image filters on their mobile app, joining an already crowded marketplace of applications designed to up the saturation and down the contrast on the images you've snapped with your iPhone.