2026-02-07:
Glossy Transparent/Clear:
No tint shift.
Grid pattern artefacs.
Avoid.
There is an extremely light diffusion, almost too light to be useful.
It projects grid patterned artefacts across the spill. In my view worse than Milky, at least Milky’s are random splotches and the stronger diffusion masks it a little.
Of the D-C-Fixes Milky is the least bad.
2026-01-23:
Frost & Opal:
Severe angular tint shift.
Avoid.
They’re made of a white semi translucent material visually similar to milk bottle HDPE.
This does give a light diffusion however it severely affects the tint. Hotspot has dropped maybe 300K. The spill appears mostly unchanged. The angular tint shift is disgusting and I cannot recommend these films at all.
Opal on top of Milky.
No artefacts. Just tint shift.
Milky:
This is made of a clearer plastic that does not appear to affect the tint.
It provides a moderate diffusion however the texture is very coarse and produces artefacts similar to those you sometimes get from orange peel reflectors.
I think it would be good paired with a finer diffusion to eliminate the artefacts.
The first beam shot is Opal on top of Milky and as you can see no artefacts, just tint shift.
Doubling up on Milky also reduces artefacts.
How bad the artefacts are seems to depend on:
A. Throwiness. A light that is initially throwy has brighter artefacts.
B. Reflector size. Smaller diameter reflectors have bigger artefacts, same as with OP reflectors.
C. Severity of initial artefacts before diffusion.
D. The type of diffusion. Clear OP textured diffusions are inherently artefacty. Much like putting a bat symbol on your lens these diffusions project an image of their texture into the spill.
Just Milky. No tint shift, some artefacts in the spill.
The diffused light is an old Incan. So it had substantial artefacts before diffusion, definitely a lot better after diffusion.
I am sold on the viability of diffusion film and would like to find something better than Milky.
Lee diffusions are interesting but about £100 for a full set of 20 white, frost and zircon diffusions.
The swatchbooks are small and expensive for samples that wouldn’t cover many of my lights.
If anyone has thoughts on Lee diffusions let me know.
Rosco are not so obtainable here in the UK.