Rollei's professional square filters have earned an excellent reputation thanks to their workmanship and durability.
The latest generation of plug-in filters therefore had to prove their quality immediately after product maturity on a trip to the USA, which Rollei boss Thomas Güttler and his team took from San Francisco via the snow-covered Yosemite National Park to the sweltering heat of Death Valley..
On their journey, the photo professionals stopped at impressive nature spots.
#1: The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
#2: The Tunnel View in Yosemite National Park
#3: The tufa formations at Mono Lake
#4: The Devils Golf Course in Death Valleyy
#5: Zabriskie Point in Death Valley
In the spring of 2019, Rollei Managing Director Thomas Güttler and members of his team packed their travel and photo bags to embark on a highly exciting and challenging USA tour.
After landing at San Francisco International Airport (California), the travelers were welcomed by photo professional and location guide Paul Reiffer. We have had a friendly and very productive relationship with the landscape photography expert for many years. For this trip, the native Briton had thought of a particularly diverse route.
#1: The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
After the welcome, we went directly to a viewpoint on the world-famous Golden Gate Bridge. There the sophisticated steel construction was to be fitted with the new ones before sunset F:X PRO made of gorilla glass in the rectangular filter holder..
Motive: Golden Gate Bridge, California
Coordinates: L: 37,809 W: -122,4700
Filter: ND64 gray filter
Exposure: F/11 at 60 seconds
Camera: Fujifilm GFX 50S
Lens: GF23mmF4 R LM WR
The relatively cloudy weather ensured that the Rollei team for the first long exposure one of their journey 100 mm ND64 plug-in filter into the rectangular filter holder and opened the aperture (f/11) for one minute. After the photo was taken, the team went to the hotel to recover from the intercontinental flight.
The next morning another photo appointment was scheduled at the landmark of the Bay Area (San Francisco), which was painted in the special color International Orange. The bad weather made the photographers a foggy spanner in the works, but the bridge was simply not due to the stubborn ground fog to see more.en.
#2: The Tunnel View in Yosemite National Park
Unachieved but in a good mood, the team set off from San Francisco in a rental car in order to reach the other spots in Yosemite National Park as punctually as possible.n.
For the next stop, Paul Reiffer had planned to photograph the so-called Tunnel View, a spectacular oneren panorama-View of the Yosemite Valley basin.
Motive: Yosemite National Park, California
Coordinates: L: 37,715 W: -119,6766
Filter: ND64 gray filter, Medium GND16 gray gradient filter
Exposure: F/18 at 60 seconds
Camera: Fujifilm GFX 50S
Lens: GF23mmF4 R LM WR
Here, too, the team managed to position the cameras in time for the impressive sunset. With a ND64 and one Media GND16 in the rectangular filter holder, the wide-angle lens also let light fall through the f/18 aperture onto the image sensor for one minute.
#3: The tufa formations at Mono Lake
A comparatively short drive to Mono Lake was originally planned for the next day. Unfortunately, the direct passage over the Tioga Pass through the national park, which is known far beyond the USA, was still blocked due to the snow conditions. Thomas Güttler and his companions therefore had to make a good trip north in order to finally be able to move into the accommodation in the immediate vicinity of Lake Natron, exhausted.
A 320-mile (520-kilometer) pipeline has been draining water from near Mono Lake to serve the residents of Los Angeles since 1941. This considerable permanent extraction ensured that the water level of the lake continued to sink, the salt content increased sharply and over the years a popular photo motif formed from bizarre tufa formations that developed into real tourism and photographer magnets..
In the middle of the lake is a particularly impressive formation that the Rollei team chose as the main motif for the two-day stay. Under dramatic cloud cover, the lake looks stunning thanks to an exposure time of 30 seconds and the use of a cpl (polarizing filter) and ND filter (Power 64) Filters absolutely surreal.
Whereas the identical scenery against a spectacular sunset draws our attention more like the setting of a fantasy or science fiction film. Here the team put oneND8– and oneSoft GND8-Insert filter and open the slats of the f/22 aperture for 10 seconds.
Motive: Mono Lake, California
Coordinates: L: 37,943 W: -119,0277
Filter: ND8 gray filter, Soft GND8 gray gradient filter
Exposure: F/22 at 10 seconds
Camera: Fujifilm GFX 50S
Lens: GF23mmF4 R LM WR
But it gets even more dramatic:
Motive: Mono Lake, California
Coordinates: L: 37,943 W: -119,0277
Filter: ND64 gray filter
Exposure: F/11 at 60 seconds
Camera: Fujifilm GFX 50S
Lens: GF23mmF4 R LM WR
This image actually appears to be off-world at all, transmitted by the Mars rover Opportunity.
#4: The Devil's Golf Course in Death Valley
The next photo motif also had something to do with salt: in the middle of death valley, which is bone-dry and hot up to 50 degrees, lies the so-called Devil’s Golf Course, a dried-up lake whose flat bottom is covered with razor-sharp salt encrustations for miles.st.
In fact, some tourists still enjoy teeing off on a few golf balls but, for understandable reasons, refrain from collecting their plastic balls. The Rollei team was more ecologically friendly and shot a couple of pictures that are absolutely worth seeing with the panorama head, an f/11 aperture, an exposure time of just 1/160 s and a focal length of 32 mm..
The luscious blue of the sky and the increased contrast range was also provided by the filter holder that can be screwed into the rectangular filter holderProfessional polarizing filter.
Motive: Death Valley, Arizona
Coordinates: L: 36,285 W: -116,8266
Filter: CPL filters
Exposure: f/11 at 1/200 second
Camera: Fujifilm GFX 50S
Lens: GF23mmF4 R LM WR
#5: Zabriskie Point in Death Valley
Before the USA trip came to its planned end in the gambling city of Las Vegas, Thomas Güttler and his companions made a detour to the well-known Zabriskie Point in Death Valley.
A wonderful photo motif, in which an exposure time of 10 seconds and an inserted Soft GND8 filter were enough to create the overwhelming mood and the unique color spectrum with thePanorama head 200 to be able to capture:
Motive: Death Valley (Zabriskie Point), Arizona
Coordinates: L: 36,420 W: -116,8122
Filter: Soft GND8 gray gradient filter, ND8 gray filter
Exposure: F/8 at 0.4 seconds
Camera: Phase One IQ4
Lens: Schneider Kreuznach 35mm LS 3.5 Blue Ring
Conclusion
The new Rollei F:X PRO rectangular filter have impressively demonstrated their unrestricted operational readiness and comprehensive temperature resistance. Thanks to the extremely resistant seal, even the finest desert sand with continuous irradiation could not harm the plug-in filters.ben.
Thomas Güttler and his team finally flew home with the absolute certainty of being able to provide demanding Rollei customers with uncompromising premium quality again with this new rectangular filter generation.
*Note: Gorilla Glass is a registered trademark of the Corning company and is used by Rollei for filters. Corning owns all the rights to the name.g.