Canon 7D Anti-Aliasing Filter Review – Clean!

by Sebastian WöberJune 29^th, 2012

All of Canon’s HDSLR cameras (except the 5D mark III) share a very inconvenient problem: They pollute your picture with rainbow effects on fine patterns and stepping in hairlines and details also known as moiré and aliasing effects.

Mosaic Engineering has first developed an optical anti-aliasing and moiré filter for the 5D mark II (LINK) and now they have created an even better filter for the Canon 7D. You can see the test results in the video above.

What you may or may not see in the video above is:
A. Aliasing and moire effects are not always apparent. Often they are hidden within the details in your picture, they look like chromatic lens abberation while in fact they’re just your dirty Canon HDSLR picture. I’ve had aliasing problems all over the place in some shots in the past, but they’re there more often than you think.
B. The Mosaic Engineering VAF-7D filter cleans those images really really nicely and gets rid of about 85% of the aliasing and moiré effect.
C. The picture appears a little softer with the VAF-7D filter, but I didn’t notice any loss of detail. The dirty HDSLR aliasing makes a fake impression of sharpness while in fact it’s just aliasing patterns. You can apply sharpening in post to give your picture a clean crispness.
D. The problems the 5D mark II filter had at wide angles were solved with the new design. As you can see in the video there is no vignetting at wide angle.

Downsides
There are four minor things you should be aware of:
1. The closest focusing distance of your lenses is changed. The Tokina 11-16mm used here could initially focus as close as 30cm, with the filter applied the closest point was 100cm. On the Canon EF-S 55-250mm it raised from 1.1m to about 1.5m
2. Focusing by using the zoom-in button on your 7D is not as easy as it was before. During zoom your image appears only about a third as sharp as without the filter. Focusing accurately is still 100% possible.
3. You cannot take useful photos while the filter is in.
4. Not intended for 720p mode.

Conclusion
For $325 you can heal your HDSLR from the aliasing and moiré sickness and that’s really all there is to say.
If you didn’t mind aliasing & moiré before you probably don’t need this filter. However if you’ve been burdened by a polluted HDSLR image then here’s a solution I can only recommend.

The Mosaic Engineering VAF-7D is available here:

Music was kindly provided by themusicbed.com
Perrin Lamb – Little Bit