Do you use a UV filter on your DSLR?

Posted by: fatcat on 30 March 2014

A lot of top quality photos are posted in the "Nice Photos" thread, by a lot of top quality photographers, using top quality equipment. I'd be interested to know what, if any filters are being used.

 

I'll be buying a new lens shortly for my Canon 40D, my EFS 17-85  has given up the ghost,. I use a UV filter with the old lens but the new lens has a different filter thread size.

 

The options I'm considering are UV filter, clear filter or no filter, although no filters would leave the lens unprotected.

Posted on: 31 March 2014 by Timbo

I use a UV filter on all of my lenses, but do take them off when I am photographing in a safe environment. The filter has saved my lens so many times from scratching that I'm willing to put up with them.

 

Tim

Posted on: 31 March 2014 by count.d

I use a filter not just for protection, but more importantly, it's far more practical to keep the filter crystal clear, than the lens surface. If you don't use a filter, you're much more likely to take that award winning pic with a lens surface coated with a fine layer of grime, dust, etc. I find the outside atmosphere, coats the lens glass with a layer within a few outings.

 

A high quality (not the the glass Hoya filters I've checked) glass screw-in filter, used with a lens hood, will not degrade image quality whatsoever. The exception is when shooting into direct sun or have very bright point sources within the frame.

 

Resin filters are another matter. Lee are the only ones I've found good enough. 

Posted on: 31 March 2014 by northpole

I'm sure my Leica and Nikon lenses have better quality coatings than my glasses but I was horrified to find after a couple of years regularly cleaning my glasses to note the damage caused to the coating.  Perhaps out of context but I'm happy to stick with decent quality filters on all my lenses.

 

Has anyone run some technical lab resolution/ character tests on lenses with and without filters fitted to objectively establish the impact or no impact on photo quality?  That would be interesting, but unlikely to change my filter use habits!

 

Peter