do you use protective filters with your lens?

[smile]

do you usually use protective filters with your lens and do you take lens cap with you when going outside or you leave it at home?

 

[Ronny]

UV or Skylight.

 

[HuubL]

Yes, UV filters on most of my lenses. On cameras loaded with B&W I als use yellow (1x) as a standard filter.

 

[Chris101]

I voted yes, but ...

I often use a clear or colored filter on the 35mm Ultron on my Leica because I do not have a lens cap, and this keeps stuff from getting on the lens when it is not in use. But I also take the filter off if I want to minimize flair, or if I have a colored filter on and it is not called for.

On other cameras/lenses where I do have lens caps, I rarely use clear filters. But I do often use colored filters to enhance contrast, or achieve other effects.

 

[serge`vl]

Yes, UV (usually MC) filters are on all of my lenses.

 

[smile]

i wonder if i should buy one. actually i am not going to sell my lens in the future anyway. so i am thinking

 

[Leica All Day]

I use uv filters on all my lenses except the 15mm vc......if am shooting black and white then I'll use a medium yellow......I also use lens hoods and I never use lens caps.....well,I actually use a lens cap on my 15mm because of the fact that it doesn't have a filter....

I remember once at PMA (photo fair in Las Vegas) that a guy working the Leica booth 'scolded' me for using uv filters.....what a joke....

Cheers, michael

 

[Brian Legge]

I have a clean Summar... I don't even like changing filters with it when I want to use something else. Don't want any duist getting on it that I'd be tempted to clean. 😉

I usually use a slight warming lens anyway when shooting b&w. As a result, I usually have a lens on a camera. I take a lens cap as well as if the filter gets messed up on the way to shooting, well, I can't exactly shoot with it. Not all of them clean up easily either, depending on what gets on them.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Never, ever. They reduce sharpness and can induce flare. Good ones like B+W are less bad than cheap ones like Tiffens (YUCK, absolutely horrid!) and the cheaper sngle-coated Hoyas (Hoya HMC are very good), but still, anything put over the lens will degrade quality even if you can't notice it.

 

[Neare]

There's always some filter on my lenses, whether they be a colour filter for b&w or skylight etc. It's good for me as by the end of the day after some serious shooting the filter is usually covered in oil marks or dried up water spots (cleans off easily). I'd rather risk a cheap filter than the lens and all this talk about filters taking away sharpness and whatever, I don't care my photos are not suddenly better if they're sharp.
My lens cap has never seen the lens after I took it out the box, the camera is always ready to go. But I don't really carry around cameras in bags either, one camera over the shoulder and a p&s in the pocket is usually how I work.

 

[ricnak]

No filter these days. Always have a cap on when the camera is in the handbag.

I think filters are like condoms. Sensible when you are wild and young. Not so necessary as you age.

 

[HuubL]

Never, ever. They reduce sharpness and can induce flare. Good ones like B+W are less bad than cheap ones like Tiffens (YUCK, absolutely horrid!) and the cheaper sngle-coated Hoyas (Hoya HMC are very good), but still, anything put over the lens will degrade quality even if you can't notice it.

Sure it reduces sharpness or increases the chance of flare, but accumulating dust, droplets or front element damage due to micro scratches caused by more frequent cleaning in the end does more harm to the image.

 

[pixelatedscraps]

I almost inevitably use a UV filter on all lenses. The only exceptions are the 150/4.5 on my Mamiya 6 - I simply always keep the lens hood on when I'm shooting, and the 35/2.8 on my M4.

 

[Roger Hicks]

With most of the ones that are on the camera most of the time, yes. The danger of image degradation is negligible, especially with wide angles -- I don't know anyone, including better experimentalists than I (e.g. Ctein), who have found any detectable loss of sharpness -- and with a decent lens hood (and I ALWAYS use a lens good), flare is more of a theoretical objection than a real one unless you are shooting straight into the sun (in which case you can remove the filter). I've seen it asserted that veiling flare is a problem but I have my doubts.

Cheers,

R.

 

[John Lawrence]

Always have UV filters on my lenses.

John

 

[mgd711]

Never, but I always use a hood.

 

[jsrockit]

Well, with my M8... I'm forced to use filters. 🙁 I do use a protective filter on my Ricoh GXR because I tend to use it in the rain and snow.

 

[mfunnell]

For reasons that have (at best) a limited relationship with rationality, I always have a filter in front of my SLR lenses and only sometimes have one in front of my rangefinder lenses. If I'm not using a circular polariser on my SLR lenses (and usually I'm not) I'll put a clear filter (usually a UV filter) in front.

The only filters I use on my RF lenses are there for effect: generally an ND filter (sometimes I like shallow DOF on lenses I use with my M3, and a 1/1000thSec shutter speed sometimes doesn't cut it) but other times it might be a yellow or orange filter, or even a red one (I assume those are faster, like red sports cars).

I'll plead a limited sort of rationale: in general (but far from always) my RF lenses are "better" than my SLR lenses in terms of optical quality. (So why put a filter with a less-well-attested piece of glass in front of 'em?) And yet, quite often (for high-end modern autofocus ones) my SLR lenses are more expensive. Less need to worry about optical quality, coupled with higher replacement cost. Also, I tend to worry about filters more when conditions are bad (dust, sand etcetera). Perhaps that's why I use filters on my SLR lenses, as many are zoom lenses so I don't have to change 'em so often when environmental conditions are difficult.

On the other hand, I use clear filters on my SLR prime lenses, even when I seldom if ever take them into harsher environments.

You can probably see some sense in the above, but also some reflexive irrationality. And if you can't, I certainly can. Suffice it to say, I'm a simple-minded kind of guy, so I tend to a simple rule: SLR lenses get clear filters, whether they need them or not. RF lenses don't. Unless there's an important reason why they might need one.

...Mike

 

[shimokita]

normally a Y2 or YA3. in low light it might be a protect filter... b&w only...

Casey

 

[rbsinto]

Yes. Always.
Usually Nikon L37c filters.