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Hello, 

I want make some hides for photography in Portugal. I want to know what kind of glass it is used in that kind of hides like Bence Mate and others have. 

 Those are special tratment glass? simple mirror glass? 

Can you tell me about?

thank you

Ricardo Silva 
(Vanellus-Portugal)

I have tested hides with the best glass money can buy and it reduces $12,000 lens sharpness down to what one gets with $250 lenses.   It's just not the way to go.  Serious photographers will want hides with no glass.  The fundamental problem is that no window glass made is designed apochromaticaly so different colors end up falling on a different focal plane.  When you bayer demosaic green, red and blue pixels that are focused to different planes, you end up with a very soft photo. Think of it as an anti aliasing filter on steroids.

Thank you E. J. Peiker

but the problem is with the sensitive species like Great bustard, cranes, golden and spanish imperial eagles. that react to the moviment of the lens and sound

Ricardo Silva wrote:Thank you E. J. Peiker

but the problem is with the sensitive species like Great bustard, cranes, golden and spanish imperial eagles. that react to the moviment of the lens and sound

Get yourself a camo mesh cloth to put over the opening, split in the middle to stick lens through.  As for noise, the new Sony A9 &A7rIII (and some other mirrorless brands) have completely silent shutters.  The day of the old noisy DSLR's are over.

As a wildlife photographer I have no interest in shooting anything if I have to shoot through glass.

We spend thousands upon thousands of hard-earned dollars just to get a lens that is a wee bit sharper than the lens we had before, and to get a camera that has a bit more resolution than we had before. We go to great lengths to figure out ways to get close to our subjects so that we can shoot without tele-converters and crop factor camera bodies, so as to capture the greatest amount of detail possible. Now if anyone expects me to negate all of that work and money spent, and be ok with shooting through a pane of glass, they are very mistaken.

I found the exact name and type of glass that Bence uses.  I have the information written down at home, and I'm traveling and don't have it with me.  If you search around enough, you can find it on his website.  Let me dig though notes to make sure I don't have it with me.

After seeing what he has accomplished with his blinds, I decided to put one way glass in a photo blind I built at my photography destination business.  I had to do a lot of searching to find what I thought was acceptable glass.  I loved it, as you could move about freely, and talk without any adverse effects.  Great for workshops!  I also hated it, because of the cost of sharpness, particularly if you shot at an angle to the window.  In the end, I ultimately removed it - wasted about $1,500 on glass and unnecessary insulation etc., but it was the right decision.  I know E.J would concur as he tested my windows and wasn't happy with the decrease in sharpness.

I know Bence is an amazing photographer and gets wonderful results - and has lots of photographers using his blinds around the world.  I have thought about ordering a 1 foot by 1 foot section just to test, but I'm doubtful quality.  But curious.  Keep me posted on what you do.

Thank you Ron Niebrugge and Tom Reichner for your words.

I will take that in consideration.

I hope to see you in the future in my hides in Portugal.

best regards

Ricardo Silva (Vanellus-Portugal)