For planar setup

[agniusm]

Here's what i thought. Beam splitters are expensive. I was wandering if glass combined with car window tintink film would work. Its cheap and you can choose level of tinting. just a thought

[Freke1]

the film I have is transparent but also reflective (about 40-60), I don't know if the polarisation change.

[WheatstoneHolmes]

I am using just plain clear glass atm and it works fine, probably not nearly as good as a 50/50 or (60% or 70%, etc.) mirror.

I was thinking about getting some mirrored film for it but never did. The film I have available to me at a local store is polyester-based and I was told it might cause polarization problems.

[Likay]

I think i tried some darkening film and polarizationproperties for not so long ago. To me it seemed like it had "retarderproperties" which means it does affect polarization but only in a certain angle. It depends widely if other materials are used in those though. In my experience plastic should be avoided if you want polarization preserving materials. There can very well be plastic materials that do work though.

[nickc]

I tested my planar setup using glass which worked quite well. Then did some experimenting with plastics and found that they affected the polarization. I eventually got a company in London to make me up a nice front surface mirror. 70/30 (approximately) titanium coated as I remember (It was 18 months ago). I would steer clear of plastics if I was you. Ordinary glass is better.

[WheatstoneHolmes]

Sounds good, was is expensive?

[anotherFrench]

I found here in france a glass that is used for half mirrored windows and it seems to work amazingly well, it's called "antelio" in french shops so I don't know if the name is the same in english.
the coating is on 1 side of the mirror so you have to turn that side in front of you, otherwise you get a double picture due to the reflection on the glasse and it preserve the polarity of the light.
here on 2 crt monitor (without polarised filters)


for the last pic I flipped 1 of the 2 views to show the similarity of light and color between the 2, you can see they are verry identical

I found that glass at a normal glass shop, it's not expenssive but a little heavy so be carefull if you buy it online :p

ps:
a planar rig made by a french user with the antelio half mirrored glass:
http://forum.hardware.fr/hfr/Hardware/2 ... m#t7132780" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Guig2000]

This glass "antelio" is originaly a solar glazing for buildings, made by the company St Gobain. With only 33% of light reflected, it is not an hi-quality glasses for a planar but it have a very little price (43€ (64USD) for a 670*570mm glass for my 24'' planar)
I think all big company on this domain have this type of glasses, people have to look on their website for example, the "Stopsol classic clear" from AGC Your Glass.