Opinion on Protective Lens

[Captain Kidd]

I'm haing difficulty deciding on wheter i should use a protective lens for my film camera. Could people share theier experiences, is ghosting a big problem, in daylight and nighttime? I hear as well that any extra layer of glass will diminish light getting to a lense and therefore picture quality too, or would this be impossible to notice.

Any advise would be greaty appreciated

 

[ray*j*gun]

If you are referring to a clear lens filter, there are mixed opinions about using them. For critical work I do not use one. For most shoots I do on my better glass. Also it depends on the quality and age of the filters. Are you referring to film or digital?

Experiment and see if you can see a difference.

 

[Captain Kidd]

Thanks, yeah im talking about a film camera, it has a great lense that I want to protect but i'm thinking whats the point if it degrades quality. And ghosting puts me off too, but i dont know how common a problem that is, can you expect it if shooting in direct sunlight or in a low light scene with a street lamp in the distance?

 

[sevo]

It is mostly a matter of filter quality, and also (to a lesser degree) dependent on the lens. In the worst case, the filter may be in the worst possible spot regarding ghosting or optical displacement - but lenses like that (often long tele lenses and catadioptric lenses) will either have no filter thread, or provide a "filter drawer" somewhere mid lens in a better location.

 

[icebear]

Every filter will cause some degree of additional flare, ghosting, reflection or whatever degradation of image quality. In most cases though this will not be relevant and unless you have a control shot with and w/o filter no one will be able to tell. How much lens protection do you really need? Use a solid metal sunshade which will protect against most mechanical impact unless of course it directly comes at the lens from the front. Any other stuff like dirt you just blow off. Don't touch the front lens with your fingers, ever and you won't have fingerprints on there. Under certain conditions e.g wind & water, especially at sea, i.e. salt water a filter is a must.

 

[ABrosig]

I always have protective filters on my lenses. Replacing a filter is generally much less expensive than replacing the front element of a lens. In certain conditions, though, nothing will provide protection.

That said, I always get the best filter I can. Not to advertise, but I'm very pleased with the B+W filters. They are multi-coated as well as or better than most lens elements and manufactured with top materials. They are expensive, but I've never had a problem with ghosting or flare (unless there was dust on the filter, which was my fault) with these filters, either on film or on digital. I don't notice any image quality loss. My advice is definitely get the filter to protect that front element.

 

[Captain Kidd]

The camera is an old point and shoot contax and the protective lens is contax too so im assuming they put as much consideration into that as they did with the lovely lens. Maybe its best to shoot a roll with the protective lens and one without and see if i can spot the differences, the reason im considering it, is because its long out of production a replacement lens is near impossible.

 

[znapper]

Hm.....

Here, we use UV filters for protection.

No point with UV-filters on digital, but they were indeed invented in the film years, so I actually use UV-filters when I shoot color-film.

Or is it pointless with modern films....?

 

[sevo]

I actually use UV-filters when I shoot color-film.

Or is it pointless with modern films....?

No. You inevitably need it (or a even stronger filter) in high UV illumination (clear skies, mountains, sea) - for one, the UV part of the image will be out of focus unless you use a (rare) UV capable Apo lens, for the other, the (to the human eye) invisible UV part of the spectrum will expose the blue layer of colour film, throwing the colour off balance.

 

[presspass]

I have a UV filter on all but my oldest LTM lenses. Among other things, I document the work of our local volunteer fire companies, something I've been doing for 40+ years. When I pull up to a fire scene, I don't have time to screw protective filters on lenses, so they're always present. Getting splashed and having debris flying around is an ongoing hazard, so the filters are needed, as are screw-in or bayonet-on hoods. The pullout hoods on some lenses don't provide enough protection.

 

[jsrockit]

I never use protective filters... but I also don't go into war zones.

 

[Captain Kidd]

Thanks everyone, Presspass, do you find alot of instances of ghosting, id imagine the environments you're in would be likely scenarios for the affect to pop up. Sounds like an exciting subject to photograph, mind you heartbreaking too if someones house is in flames. Incredible that people volunteer for this, amazing.

 

[presspass]

There are occasions when there is flare and ghosting, especially at night when the scene lights are on. They are high-output and mounted on extendable booms on some rescue engines and ladder trucks. They will cause flare, and there's nothing I can do about this. As for volunteer service, that's a long tradition in Lancaster County, Pa., and we still have people who will go out in miserable weather to fight fire and extract people from crashed vehicles. And they do it for free; the community service and satisfaction is enough for them.

 

[Captain Kidd]

Thanks, and its great that your documentating and highlighting their great work too.

 

[John Bragg]

If you are worried about protecting the lens, then use a screw on rubber lens hood. It will protect the lens and also helps eliminate flare. I use one in addition to a good quality uv or skylight filter on all my lenses and have never had a problem.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Why it is in this sub-forum? I guess, OP question is related to film photography.

I'm using protective layer of glass in front of the lens glass. I do street photography every time have chance to be on busy street, I'm waiting for it, not for comfortable weather. Due to this I periodically have to wipe off the crap from the glass. Don't want to do it on $1K lens glass.
Or in situations like this:

If OP question is related to indoor, artificial light, I never have this experience on film, but with digital cameras I have to remove protective filter to avoid ghosts in the picture.

 

[Dogman]

I have always used UV filters to protect my lenses. Originally, I used Tiffen plain uncoated filters but I started to occasionally see ghost images due to reflections from the lens to filter surfaces. Since then, I've used multi-coated B&W or Hoya UV filters and I've seen no further ghost reflections. Do filters degrade the image? Less so than poor framing, poor exposures, bad timing and fuzzy conceptions.

When I'm out taking pictures, I do not use front lens caps so UV filters alone protect the front elements. Lens hoods also are helpful but I don't always take the time to put a hood on my lenses.

I'm careful so I seldom have to replace UV filters. When I do get a filter scratched up, I'm thankful it's just the filter and not the front element of an expensive lens.

 

[Spavinaw]

I use mostly Hoya HMC multicoated 1A or 1B filters on my SLR lenses and some larger RF lenses. I started this when I got my first 50mm f1.4 lens. Wanted to protect that big hunk of relatively expensive glass. So far I have dropped and shattered two filters with absolutely no damage to the lens. The filters did their job well. I don't bother with filters on folding cameras, TLR's, point and shoots, and the likes. Seems to me the danger to these lenses is generally less. By the way, if I were preparing to take a million dollar photograph, I'd probably take the filter off. So far, I've never taken taken the filter off. 🙁

 

[oftheherd]

I tend to use UV filters on my lenses. I had deduced from reading photo magazines in the mid-70s, that for me, it would be the smart thing to do.

Later I read one of Ed Romney's books where he said one should keep the lens clean, not keep cleaning the lens. So that reinforced my belief that I wanted UV filters on my lenses. I clean filters fairly often, but lenses seldom.

Works for me. Others are free to disagree.

As to degradation of the image, keeping filters clean seemed to prevent degradation of photos with a filter on. In fact, as mentioned above, often it helps more as the UV filter really started out in life filtering out UV light. I do try to use good filters.