Polarizing filter works only by rotating camera

Question

I have an olympus E-PL1 mirrorless camera. I recently got a Hoya HD circular polarizer for use with a wide angle lens. Using it, I initially found that there was no varying polarizing effect as I turn the ring, irrespective of my orientation to the sun.

I then found that as I rotate the camera (ie. from landscape to portrait mode), I start seeing the polarizing effect. I assume that this is some sort of manufacturing defect.

Couple of questions:

1. Is this actually something wrong with the filter or am I doing something wrong? This is my first experience with a polarizer.
2. Is there some way I can fix this myself?

Answer 1

Usually, turning the ring changes the orientation of the polarizer just as you'd expect. Since that doesn't happen but rotating the camera does seem to rotate the polarizer, it sounds like one of two possibilities:

1. You've somehow managed to install the filter backwards.

2. The filter was assembled with the two plates reversed.

I'm not sure how you could accomplish #1, so I have to guess that #2 is the most likely answer.

If you want to test that the filter is assembled the right way, get another piece of polarized material. You could use a pair of polarized sunglasses, for example, or a pair of polarized 3D glasses. With filter attached to the camera, hold the material, whatever it is, in front of the filter and rotate the ring. The image should get darker or lighter. If you continue in the same direction eventually the filter and (say) glasses will be polarized in at right angles to each other and the image will be completely black. If you see all this, then you're rotating the polarized surface after all, and the filter is fine.

Answer 2

This might not be your issue, but I suspect it is.

With live view on my DSLR, I found that the exposure shown on the screen quickly adapted and brightened back up as I turned the polarizer. In most conditions it was very difficult to see the effect of the polarizer unless I turned it extremely fast.

This was the result of a setting called "Exposure Preview: Off" which basically instructs the live view to ignore my settings, shutter speed, etc and make the image as bright as it can (presumably for situations where being able to compose and confirm focus is a higher priority than previewing exposure).

Once I switched to "Exposure Preview: On", which respects shutter speeds, aperture settings, etc, I was able to use the polarizer effectively. Sony calls this setting "Settings Effect: On", I believe. It has various names. I'm not sure what the Olympus name is but such an option is probably in your menus somewhere.