Split Diopter Photography Filter - Open Box

This filter was either returned by a customer of I opened up the wrapping to take a look at the filter (such as when I do a quality check on new stock) so it's now considered an open box item. One of these Split Diopters is reduced simply because it is in an older style packaging. 

All of them are as-new condition, at worst there may be a little bit of scuffing on the thread where a customer has tried it out before sending it back, but that's generally not the case and would be purely aesthetic. You can treat this filter as being new. You can get this filter at a great price and it's also eligible for the multi-buy offer.

SPECIAL OFFER: Buy any 2 items from Rigu's prism photography range and save £4. Order 3 and save £8, 4 items gets you £12 off!*

Split diopters are a filter type that have existed for a long time, originally used in film making for some iconic shots that "cheat" depth of field, making it possible to focus on something that is close, and something far away at the same time and still have interesting blur between your two subjects.

For photographers and videographers a split diopter can offer more than that one niche usage. For us, it can also add some beautfiul blur and dazzling bokeh to half of your image. In my samples I've just walked around town taking shots of things I thought were interesting, but I can see this working really well in product and portrait photography, especially with how it reacts to different lighting situations.

• 77mm or 82mm screw-in filter.
• Get a step up ring if you have a different sized front-thread on your lens.
• Take the filter off the lens and go handheld with a 77mm filter adapter.
• Rotatable when fitted. Get the effect at the perfect angle for your subject with just a quick spin of the front element. It is a smooth motion, which can make this suitable for video use.
• Supplied in a padded box for safe delivery, also useful for storage of the filter. 

Tips & General Usage

Like I always say with creative filters, there is no wrong way to use them. If you like the images you're producing that's all that matters. One tip that I think is useful for the split diopter is to keep moving your AF spot around to be on the opposite side of the lens from where you've got the glass side of the filter, because your camera is going to struggle with focusing through that.

Usually with my creative filters I like to use them at wide apertures (f2.8 and wider), but the split diopter is a little different and it's worth playing around with different depths of field to see what works for a certain situation. In the sample images you'll find a image showing the same shutters for one of Kendal's nicest cafes (I'm not a salad guy, but their salads are awesome) at f8 and f1.8 with the same edit in Lightroom. At f1.8 there's a fairly ethereal look to the blurred side of the lens but also a ghosting of the image which I think works really well with the strong shape of the circle. At f8 the left side is much more defined whilst still having what I see as a pleasing blur.

In terms of bokeh, as you can see in the samples you can get some lovely out of focus spots of light in the right situation. There's also those really unusual spots which have a flat edge to them which are at the closest lights to the middle of the filter. If you don't want that flat edge, the only option is to move the lights slightly out of the frame so that they're away from the middle edge of the filter.

Be sure to tag @riguphoto on Instagram with your split images, I'd love to see how you're using the filter!

*Order two items from the prism photography range and instantly save £4 on your order (discount applied automatically to your shopping basket). Order 3 and save £8, 4 and save £12, 5 items will save £16, and so on.