How do you protect your front lens elment?

[Honus]

I'm curious how many people use hoods/shades vs. filters (principally UV/haze) to protect their lenses. Or do you use nothing at all 😱

 

[Bingley]

I know there have been heated debates over whether or not to use filters for protective purposes, but I always do. Usually a skylight filter.

 

[brachal]

I keep a UV filter on all of my lenses most of the time. Sometimes a hood as well, but the hood isn't really there to protect the lens.

 

[robbo]

Not quite the truth, but I won't use a filter unless it's a polariser or ND grad. I find my hand makes a good shade:>)

 

[cosmonot]

A hood if I have one for the lens; a filter if it's something huge like my 180/2.8 or 80-200/2.8 zoom.

For some reason putting a filter on a 39mm lens for protection made little sense, unless it was an old "soft" lens that I wanted to avoid "cleaning marks" on.

 

[jbf]

This is an issue that Im somewhat on the fence. I've had glare from bright lights or whatever happen with pretty much any lens that ive used with a filter... so in that sense I really dont want to be using filters on my glass...

But at the same time... i find it difficult to clean my lenses sometimes. I'll use an optic lens cleaner (some mesopropyawhatever alcohol) and pec pad wipes but they always seem to leave a residue after they evaporate... so in that sense Im not quite sure what to do. Heh.

I dont want to be cleaning my lenses and leave marks.


You mention that newer lenses are 'harder'. Are they much more resistant to scratches from cleaning them as the older lenses?

 

[M. Valdemar]

I scratch all of mine immediately with a special rusty nail I keep just for the purpose, then I no longer have to worry about it happening later.

 

[FallisPhoto]

I use a lens cap.

 

[ruben]

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

 

[oftheherd]

I scratch all of mine immediately with a special rusty nail I keep just for the purpose, then I no longer have to worry about it happening later.

LOL at M. Valdermar. Good one! Maybe I should try it. NOT!

 

[oftheherd]

I voted filter, as I try to do that, but when not ready for a photo, I also use a lens cap. It provides the added advantage of providing some very lovely photos to hang on one's wall. I mean really, 24x30 photos of the inside of a lens cap, mounted and framed on a wall, gets lots of comments.

This is an old debate. And people tend to defend their positions with religious ferosity. I just like to follow the advice of "keep the lens clean, don't keep cleaning the lens." Of course, if you have M. Valdemar's nail, it is a moot point. 😀 😀

 

[peterm1]

Mostly UV filters as I am less worried about a catastrophic event like dropping it although this can happen (pray it does not) but the compulsive cleaning that gradually destroys the coating that most people (me included can be prone to.) I feel a bit uncomfortable if my best lenses are going "nekkid"

 

[amoz]

A hood and B+W filter para siempre. I try to avoid to clean the front lens, I've got a Kenair "air duster" (Kenro Ltd.) for dry blowing.

 

[nikon_sam]

Thank God there was a UV filter on my 200mm lens when I was retrieving it from the back seat of my parents car...the camera and lens swung towards me and the filter hit the front seat latch...the filter saved that lens...the lens had a built-in hood and was pulled back...
That was 30 years ago and I still have that lens...in fact I was just looking at it yesterday and that front element still looks new...
I never saw the hoods as protection for lenses...maybe more so on a tele than a wide...

 

[bmattock]

I don't truly understand the question.

I use a lens hood, true. To cut down on glare.

I use a filter when the situation calls for it - usually a polarizing filter, but sometimes a red, yellow, or orange filter when I am shooting B&W.

To 'protect my lens' I try not to bash it into things.

 

[Roger Hicks]

To 'protect my lens' I try not to bash it into things.

Dear Bill,

Probably we all try not to bash our lenses into things, but accidents happen. Have you never tripped and fallen? My wife was exceedingly glad when it was only the filter that she smashed when she tripped on a rough stone staircase near the confluence of the Great and Little Tista rivers in the Himalayas.

Cheers,

R.

 

[user237428934]

Foto equipment that wants to live with me happily has to be very solid and must not catch any scratch or it will be replaced immediately ;-)
Just Kidding.
But I don't use any filters and a shade only when the light requires one. All the years i never had a problem. If i would start now being cautious I bet I would get a scratch very soon!

 

[bmattock]

Dear Bill,

Probably we all try not to bash our lenses into things, but accidents happen. Have you never tripped and fallen? My wife was exceedingly glad when it was only the filter that she smashed when she tripped on a rough stone staircase near the confluence of the Great and Little Tista rivers in the Himalayas.

Cheers,

R.

I have tripped and I have fallen. So far, I have managed to not get my camera equipment in between a rock and a hard place.

I have dropped one camera and damaged it, and one lens as well. The camera was damaged while taking it out of the box it came in from eBay, and I just butter-fingered it and dropped it, having owned it about one second - and the lens was dropped in a ham-handed effort to set it on the counter while drinking coffee in my kitchen. In neither case would a filter have protected them.

I'm not against filters as protection. I have some UV and skylight filters. But invariably I take them off at some point to mount a polarizer or a colored filter and then I put them in my bag and they get quite grotty and then I lose them. So I just don't bother anymore, and haven't really been punished for it.

I suppose it may also matter that my cameras in general cost less than the price of a new circular polarizing filter. My few exceptions - digital SLR and various Voigtlander Bessa equipment purchased new seem to have weathered the storm so far.

 

[ferider]

When you live/shoot close to the ocean with expensive lenses
you need a protective filter, period. 🙄

 

[bmattock]

When you live/shoot close to the ocean with expensive lenses
you need a protective filter, period. 🙄

That seems reasonable.

Fortunately, for me - no, and no.

Just a couple of Great Lakes and Sears lenses. Not the same, I suppose.