To Filter or NOT to Filter - That is the question

To Filter or NOT to Filter - That is the question

  • Yes I use UV / Protection Filters

    Votes: 421 58.0%

  • No, I love to shoot naked !!

    Votes: 305 42.0%
  • Total voters
    726
A lens without a filter ... i could not stand the idea!
I would not dare to work with my camera+lens without a filter on the lens just to protect the lens. Modern filters are that well made that they do no more harm to the optical performance.
Besides, with B&W, filters are most of the time useful and with colour, filters are a must because the light is never what the film needs to render colours in good balance.
I could not live without them (and my colourtemp. meter)!
 
dogbunny said:
Hi,

I'm also trying to learn a bit more about filter use. I never realized this was such a heated topic. My major interest is in photo results.

I hope you don't mind, but I attached this photo I took a while ago climbing Mt. Fuji. I didn't use any filters at all. How could a filter have helped me here? I don't mean to sound like a total noob, but I am 🙂 It was a foggy day, I guess I was hoping my photo could have a bit more clarity and less glare.

If any of you could point me toward some kind of filter tutorial, that would be cool too. Thanks.
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A KR 3 (B+W) is good for haze penetration, just try it the next time you are on the Fuji.
 
I use a UV filter on my Pentax 20mm SLR lens for protection, it needs it., very vulnerable. I have filters for all of my lenses except the fixed lens cameras. But I only use them when in an unprotected 'locus en quo'. The irony is the 20mm SLR lens is the one which I probably shouldn't be using it on. En Fin, Protection convenience, just how lazy you are.
 
Robert said:
I have a skylight filter on all my lens . Any problems with lens detail would be insignificiant if the lens got scraped or damaged. A filter can be changed a lot easier than the lens.
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Ditto. Especially for my undamaged vintage lenses that become more difficult to replace in the same condition. Fortunately/unfortunately I don't have to worry about protecting really expensive lenses like a Summilux. The Summitar (edit: I mean Summarit here) is as close as I get.
 
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dcsang said:
I was always told that, as long as you were careful with your gear, why put what could be an inferior piece of glass in front of a nice superior piece of glass.
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But B+W MRC glass is not inferior to any nice superior glass I use...
 
peter_n said:
But B+W MRC glass is not inferior to any nice superior glass I use...
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Yes your right if the sun is behind you. But all filters flare when the sun or another bright light is in the field of view. Plus I have never damaged a front element on a lens enough to reduce image quality at all.

Because I am purchasing an M8 I will have to use IR filters although I DON'T LIKE IT. However, I reviewed thousands of shots to look for situations in which a filter will cause a flare and found , much to my surprise that very few pictures actually are shot in situations that cause an objectionable flare. So, if there is a very good reason to use a filter, I would. But "lens protection" isn't a good reason at all.

Ironically, none of my 30-40 lenses that I have owned have ever been damaged by the like of a front filter. But I did destroy one lens, a extreme wide angle with a protruding rear element, by trying to protect the rear element with a rear cap that wasn't deep enough. The protective cap abraded the very center of the rear element which rendered the lens useless when stopped down to F8 or so!

So my experience is that protective caps are only used by people who don't care about their equipment 😛

Rex
 
If anyone is into vintage lenses as I am, you really appreciate undamaged lens coatings. In their day, these coatings, and indeed some of the glass itself, was very soft, and only a protective filter keeps it from being damaged by less than delicate cleaning of dust and occaisional fingerprint.
 
Lonely Driver said:
I'm not a pro and I care about my equiptment so I always have a filter on my lenses. If one or two of my shots come out with some flare (unlikely), it's not like I'm going to lose money or my job. Plus if you should be unfortunate enough to drop your lens, the filter could save the day. See Ken Rockwell's link here:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18200/18200-drop-test.htm
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That article should be titled "Secret Lives of Lenses on Ebay"
 
FrankS said:
If anyone is into vintage lenses as I am, you really appreciate undamaged lens coatings. In their day, these coatings, and indeed some of the glass itself, was very soft, and only a protective filter keeps it from being damaged by less than delicate cleaning of dust and occaisional fingerprint.
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Your 'vintage lens' reason did give me food for thought. My dad had a tendency to be overzealous about cleaning his lenses and that, plus the softer coatings of the 1950's lead to some damaged lenses.

However, my approach is to rarely clean lenses and when I do, I am very careful. The newer coatings are actually tougher than glass but the older coatings could be quite soft. It is actually amazing just how dirty a lens can get without effecting quality. Many people think that the least little amount of dust is a really bad thing. As an experiment I once poured dirt on a lens and found that the only effect was a slight reduction in contrast.

Rather than a filter, a lens hood takes care of almost all the impact type of problems. Dropping a camera on its lens is something that can ruin a lens. But here again, a filter is not the best line of defense. A lens hood will be far more effective. Plus a lens hood will decreas flare, not increase it

Rex
 
I always have a filter on my lenses. I worry about even smudging my camera lenses as I am worried about any damage I might do cleaning them, even being very careful and with the correct cleaning equipment.
 
My story is similar to Back Alley's (Joe) and the Ken Rockwell saga, I had a Oly 85mm hard rubber hood on my best J9 (85mm), as well as a UV filter, the rubber hood took the shock of Kiev and 85mm landing on top of it, it the hood is now not as good as new, but the filter lens and camera were not detectably damaged.

I've never told my Oly OM 85mm lens what its hood did for my Kiev.

An old cron needs the best hood and filter as the M may be in a Ita case but the cam may land nose down.

Noel
 
back alley said:
yes...and no...

when i was a noob i put a filter on everything. i also used never ready cases.

then i decided i was against filters and thought to myself, 'when was the last time you 'hurt' a lens'? answer...never!

now i have become more pragmatic.

in summer/nice weather - no filters.
in winter/snow/sleet etc - uv filters.

joe
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Agree here.... if using a camera/lens outside in the windy, snowy, rainy conditions

((Yes, I have been known to use my Bessa R2 in LIGHT RAIN. I zip my jacket and protect it up the point of exposure, then I unzip and preset Focus/SS/FS, quicly frame and shoot usng Sunny 16, (Rainy 5.6) rule. Then a quick wipe as I hide the camera/lens, and zip up the jacket)).

But if the weather is calm and no rain, Naked.
 
Earlier in this thread people said that they use uv-filters for "protection"...yes... Actually, I believe the most common accident with cameras is that you either bang the lens somewhere or drop it to the floor/ground, right? Ok, if you drop the lens or something like that isn't it the shattered filter glass causing the damage to the front element, not the drop itself? And if you use hoods -- that takes away the impact, but still if you use filter, there is a high change that it might shatter and give marks to the front element.

For "protection" against usual accidents, I would not use filters. I would use hoods or maybe an empty filter (or two) to take the impact (empty filter = filter with glass removed).

My CV35 ultron, no filters.
50mm 'lux, I'll find a step-up ring (43-->45) and attach one or two empty filters to serve as a protection and as a tiny hood.
 
I've dropped and banged lots of cameras and have broken my share of filters and lenses.

Broken pieces of filter glass are not a big threat to the lens glass, in my experience. Usually, the filter glass cracks or shatters; but it still stays within the filtter ring rather than go flying. Also, chances are high that the impact will occur at an angle, so the stress point is the edge of the filter ring, not the central glass area.

An accident in which shattered filter glass scratches the lens element is likely to be so catastrophic that the lens would have been damaged anyway.

Shooting traditional black-and-white film, I used yellow filters on all the lenses, which improved the tonality of my images. Yellow filters seem much less necessary on the newer C41 b&w films, so I don't them much anymore. For color, I've always used warming skylight filters ... this is less important in the era of PhotoShop, but old habits die hard.
 
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Hello, what is the thread to get an UV filter for a Jupiter-9 85/2 ? and for a CV 21/4 ? I am considering getting in addition to those two more filters to protect my 50mm lenses (I already use a great "S & W PHOTO CO UV 40.5mm". I should formally get a CV 21/4 next week, crossing fingers!

Thanks!
Max

P.S. : It's mainly to protect my lenses from possible bumpings.
 
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modern baked coated lenses - no UV filter "for protection" - only if I'm in the mountains where the UV would be a useful thing to mitigate.

older soft coating, or no coating lenses - a BW MRC filter where the protection is a good trade off over the risk of extra flare.

I do try to use hoods frequently (obviously to block light) - but also because they offer a measure of protection against the occasional bump. And with my RF lenses, most of them have such relatively small, recessed front elements, it's hard to imagine much getting in there directly.

The only exception to this rule is one of my dSLR lenses that has a very exposed 82mm front objective. I always have a BW MRC filter over the front of that. It does flare on occasion, but with a fist sized objective, I can see potential damage occuring easily.
 
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