How do you protect your front lens elment?

[David Goldfarb]

If filters degrade image quality, why does Leitz, of all people, make filters for their lenses????? And notice, I didn't say Hoya, Tiffen, or somebody else. I said LEITZ.

It's not a mystery, and Leitz filters have no magic properties in this regard. Filters are always a tradeoff.

If you are shooting color film and want to reduce the effects of haze and UV, then a UV filter improves image quality, with the caveat that it also reduces light transmission and contrast slightly due to flare. With B&W filters can alter the contrast of the image or the rendering of colors in grayscale, often to great advantage in comparison to the disadvantages of using a filter. If there is an obvious physical hazard, the use of a high quality filter lets you take pictures without being distracted by concern about damage to your lens, but if there is no physical hazard or photographic reason for using a filter, then I don't use them.

Regarding the effectiveness of UV filters in filtering UV, Bob Atkins wrote up a good test of this as an article on photo.net a while back. Many of them don't do much, but the better filters like Heliopan and B+W are quite effective.

A multicoated filter, though, is slightly better than a single coated filter, and significantly better than an uncoated filter. Higher quality filters are usually tested more carefully for optical flatness and generally have better rings. B+W and Heliopan filters are usually dyed in the mass, while Tiffen filters are typically glass/gel/glass sandwiches, which don't last as long, but certainly last long enough for most purposes.

 

[kalokeri]

An UV filter to protect the front lens.

A hood I use only if it has a bayonet mount or is build in. Screw ins make me mad.

Thomas

 

[JOE1951]

Just to expand on this with a couple of anecdotes of "extreme cases"

I know of a photographer who loves to tell his story of working a wedding. During a reception, he changes lenses on his Hasselblad. Puts switched lens on table, turns his back only momentarily to take a photo, turns back to the lens on the table to find someone thought it was an ashtray and put a cigarette out in it! No filter!

I don't know if that is true or some urban myth B.S., but it wouldn't surprise me.

2nd story was during a G7/G8/Gx whatever protest. I watched a television cameraman 3 feet away from me, get blast of blue paint completely across the front element of his video camera! No filter! He must have been new on the job, and probably the last job he did.

...and no I wasn't me,...administrator, we need a smilely icon for "shifty eyes"

So yeah, UV filters have their place, I just don't experience those extreme cases! Your mileage will vary.

...but my early experience makes me feel UV filters are overrated than practical, unless your shooting in extreme conditions, wet weather, salt spray, high dust and sand, etc. In which case it might be wise to also keep the whole camera in a protective weatherproof case....

 

[bmattock]

I ruined a Pentax P3 last week when I fell (back won't stay shut now. Fortunately the SMC-A 50/1.7 had a metal hood. 🙂 )

I have a couple of P3's that I bought entirely for the lens, so the bodies are surplus to my needs. Let me know if you need one.

 

[Ronald M]

I use a lens shade and watch where I swing the camera. Do not clean in the field unless it is a dire emergency, wait to get home and do it properly.

 

[skahde]

Hood for a bumper, filters for a purpose. Protection is not one of them.

When I started I had UVs and 1As on every lens and ran into trouble with reflections, double-pictures of bright objects and flare on several occasions. I could solve theses problems by removing all unnecessary filters.

I have dozens of lenses and use them daily. I didn't have a single scratch or problem during the last 12 years due to not using filters.

Stefan

 

[bmattock]

Yep, protection is dubious at best.... A mate once said, "Me, carry a gun, luv? That's just asking to get shot at."

That doesn't make any sense. Why would carrying a firearm make one any more prone to be shot at?

 

[bmattock]

Of itself, it doesn't. It's a 'rounder's' lament from the bad old days. Show a gun to the coppers and you're likely to be responded to in kind. At that point we may have young people all nervous and with their fingers NOT where they're supposed to be - outside the trigger guard. Conceled it's simple insurance. Revealed, to some, not all, it's an occasion for brinksmanship. Lamentably.

Ah. Didn't quite get it the way you said it. I would never draw a concealed weapon or brandish one at anyone I did not intend to shoot, and there is very little that would persuade me not to fire once I had made that determination.

In my opinion, the problem with guns is not the gun enthusiast, but rather the dabbler. Some people see movies and think that waving a gun around in the air solves problems and therefore they might like to have one. Those are the dangerous folks. People who understand weapons do not object to statements like 'guns kill'. Of course they do, when used properly. That is what they are for. Next question?

 

[bmattock]

The mate was a photog for a Canadian magazine, smart man. I once saw him wrap a lens and a few other things in condoms to ford a river that was high and fast. He didn't use filters on his lenses, except for shooting colour, either. All of us broke stuff. But he seemed to break less than me.

Non-lubricated, I presume. Ribbed or non?

 

[Honus]

The mate was a photog for a Canadian magazine, smart man. I once saw him wrap a lens and a few other things in condoms to ford a river that was high and fast. He didn't use filters on his lenses, except for shooting colour, either. All of us broke stuff. But he seemed to break less than me.

Yes, this again underscores the idea that size matters. It would be a bigger man than me, so to speak, that could wrap his DSLR and zoom lens in his condom. Me? I'm thankful I use M-Leicas 😀

 

[caffeineshutter]

Thank you very much. I appreciate your kindness. However, that P3 was getting on my nerves. Loud shutter, DX coding only, and a difficult-to-sense shutter release button. My ex-gf just gave me her K1000 on semi-permanent loan, and I'm very happy with that one.


Cheers,

CJ

I have a couple of P3's that I bought entirely for the lens, so the bodies are surplus to my needs. Let me know if you need one.

 

[pvdhaar]

That doesn't make any sense. Why would carrying a firearm make one any more prone to be shot at?

I guess he means shooting yourself in the foot.. sort of like collateral damage but in a different way. 😀

 

[amateriat]

It's cheaper and more effective to my opinion to use a metal hood.

Cheaper because if you go for a filter you have to buy one not degrading your lenses. An expensive one.

More effective because with a hood you enjoy the benefit of preventing glare. And if you go for a filter, the filter becomes part of the front element. Then, how will you defend your filter ?

That been said, whenever a specific filter is due, of course it sould be used.

That's my vote.

Cheers,
Ruben

Most heartily agreed. And there's one other little thing: take a lens with that expensive, low-flare filter and smack it against something pretty hard, and your lens might come away unscathed, but the filter is now toast (and good luck unscrewing it from the lens, BTW). The filter has now done at least one of its jobs. Once. And your shooting for the day is more-or-less a wrap.

Take that same lens, this time with a metal or hard rubber hood (not the floppy, collapsible, accordian-rubber jobs of the bad old days), and smack it with the same intensity, and it's a 90-95% certainty (okay, based on my own experience) your lens comes away unscathed, and, at worst, the metal hood might suffer a scratch or two, or maybe a nick or small dent. The screw threads are likely unharmed, and you can get back to shooting (as soon as you calm down and reorder yourself). 🙂

Other than the (very) occasional polarizer, I've never used filters, and I've yet to lose a single lens in thirty years' use from doing in the front element. (I once destroyed a cheap, no-name zoom lens by ripping the barrel loose from the lens mount, but that's another story. And the lens wasn't even mine...)


- Barrett

 

[kshapero]

I use a filter and a hood but no cap.

1. Filter - Tiffen protector, not MC. Easy to clean and cheap. Protects lens glass.
2. Hood - protects rim of the lens.
3. No cap - so I am ready to shoot and don't have to worry about the cap's whereabouts.
PS I do use the cap when the lens is on the shelf at home.

 

[jbh]

I always stick on a good-quality filter and a metal (if possible) shade. Over the years I've managed to smash a few filters and bend a couple of shades but have never yet damaged a lens.

 

[ErnestoJL]

I always stick on a good-quality filter and a metal (if possible) shade. Over the years I've managed to smash a few filters and bend a couple of shades but have never yet damaged a lens.

That´s my vote too.
Allways, it was easier and cheaper to find another hood (even an original one) or a filter made with good optical grade glass than to find another prime lens that performs exactly the same as the one you protected with those seemingly inexpensive (in fact they aren´t) accesories.
Fortunately, I managed to damage only one original Fujica 49 mm hood in all those years, but anyway it protected the lens from massive damage.
It was well worth the expense.

Cheers

Ernesto

 

[feenej]

Lens cap or nothing.

 

[jbh]

The "protective filter" question takes on religious aspects... <g>

It's interesting how some assert that a skylight/uv filter will "degrade image quality" in some horrible manner while it's otherwise perfectly acceptable to use a color filter.

I think the reason that some are so strongly opposed to using a protective filter is probably that many have bought the cheapest filters they could find and of course saw the image degradation that those filters cause. I don't know why anyone would use a filter that isn't of comparable quality to the lens itself and be surprised when that happens.

Some say that a filter should only be used in hazardous conditions. That's somewhat valid, but otoh I once managed to smash a filter against a doorknob in my house!

Simply using a filter isn't the best protection and the extra surfaces could cause some flare; if it's an either/or situation a screw-in metal shade is much better. Note that most shades that are supposedly appropriate for a given lens are much shorter than could be used; all you need to do is use the longest shade that doesn't cut off the corners.

Of course for maximum protection you should use both a filter and a shade. Just be sure it's a high-quality filter and a rigid shade.

-jbh-

 

[tvagi]

i use nothing!
i am sure that i would loose any lens cap!(if i used one)

 

[narsuitus]

“How do you protect your front lens elment?”

“What do you use in front of your lenses?”


When I am shooting, the primary thing I use in front of my lens to protect it is distance. Selecting a focal length that not only puts my front lens element out of harms way but me as well is extremely important.

I do not routinely use a UV/Haze filter on my lenses because they tend to rob me of some of the detail I am trying to capture (yes, I have performed comparison tests on 35mm images enlarged over 16x20 inches and noticed the difference in detail). However, on those rare occasions when I am shooting in a situation or an environment where the front lens element is likely to get damaged (mud wrestling, dust storm, race track), I will use a UV/Haze filter to protect the front element.

I routinely use a screw-on lens hood but primarily to block stray light from the front lens element. As a secondary benefit, the hood does offer some protection to the lens.

I use a case to protect my hooded lens while it is being stored or transported.

I do use a lens cap on my lenses that will accept a lens cap while the lens hood is attached or retracted.

If I am shooting in a hostile environment where the front lens element, the lens, and the camera are likely to get lost, damaged, or stolen; I use a disposable camera.

Since there were no options that fit me, I did not vote.