roboflick
Well-known
I put a b and w filter on a lens the moment I receive it. I hate wiping the front element. Over the years it may lead to some damage
Nik
Nik
I've seen that review quoted a lot since it came out. I wasn't convinced then, and I'm still not convinced about the results from the Heliopans. I've used them for about a dozen years now and in my experience - they're just like B+Ws. Even today, between UV/IR filters - same performance. 😕
The Zeiss lens caps are horrible. On goes the UV filter, and the lens cap goes in the box.
Heliopan are a relatively poor value [link].
I do keep a Hoya or B+W on most of my lenses, most of the time. I'd be pretty unhappy if a piece of grit got on the microfiber cloth or the lenspen and trashed the front element on a nice lens. And it rains a lot here so I wipe the front elements a lot. If you're using good UV filters they'll almost never have any detectable effect on what the film or sensor see, anyway — as Ctein's tests and the tests run by Lenstip (linked above) show.
LOL! Seriously. Zeiss really dropped the ball on those caps.
No never. I use filters when I need to but never for protection. It's a scam started by retailers to boost profits. Ask yourself how many times has your filter actually protected your lens. In 40 years of photgraphy, I've never had a lens damaged by anything that a filter would have prevented.
I have. A 35/2.8 PC-Nikkor we'd had for 3 months. When you see that big, star-shaped crack in the glass, you're REALLY glad it was a filter. Of course there was no shade on the PC-Nikkor. The other time was on a 200/3 Vivitar Series 1 with a retractable hood. With fixed hoods, I'm not so worried, but without...
Cheers,
R.