UV/Clear Filters...

[Hillary]

Who uses them?

Do they decrease the clarity of the picture? I hardly ever use them, I just keep my hood on...

Thoughts?

[Bill M]

I have them on several of my lenses. I have been known to take them off in some instances though just in case. I don't know if they degrade photo quality or not honestly.

[texag93]

It was explained to me at Armadillo camera that UV filters(quality filter) protect the lens, will not harm quality of pic and cut down on haze in the sky.

[zramsey]

I have been shooting professionally for years and here is my take, if the guy designing the lens wanted an extra piece of glass on the front of the lens he would have put one there. Now if you use it when needed for UV filtration that is great and it is also not a bad idea to slap one on when in a very dirty or wet environment to protect the lens, but I would not get in the habit of leaving it on there.

[scotty]

x2^ Couldn't have said it better.

[Shane]

Take two pictures - one with a UV filter and one without. If you can see UV light in the non-filtered picture, then you've got better eyes than me. You will probably see slightly less sharp detail in the filtered pic, depending on the quality of the filter it will be more or less noticeable.

I think they're unnecessary, personally. Protection factor makes sense, but a lens hood and common sense care will protect your lens as well. If I'm hiking around outdoors, it makes sense to take extra precautions. In those times, I prefer to keep a polarizing filter on. A polarizer does a MUCH better job in cutting haze and making skies look good anyway. A circular polarizer's effect is adjustable too by rotating the filter.

Indoors or night shots or other times where I don't want a polarizer, I'm usually not doing anything that makes me think I need extra protection of my lens, other than keeping a hood on and keeping the lens cap on between shots.

Hopefully, after typing all this I won't go out and put a big scratch in my favorite lens now.

[Casey]

I don't do them. If you'll sleep better with one on, then by all means, use it. However, think about what you buy. If you have a $600 lens with a $19 filter, you're probably hurting that lens.

Go the hood route. I recently bought one off ebay for my main lens. Canon wanted $53 for it, Hong Kong wanted $10...and that included getting it here. Try ebay first.

[Shane]

Was it unlimited wonderful, Casey?

[Kevin]

I shoot with good quality UV filters on *most* of the time.

I shoot outdoors 99.9% of the time.

Once I start shooting, the lens cap goes into my pocket until I get home, including if I switch lenses (then I have 2 lens caps in my pocket heh)

My UV filters get DIRTY after ~6 months of use.

I never clean the elements of my lenses (never need to)

I've never taken a picture and said... "i should have removed that UV filter" when I got home

I've touched my UV filters on accident many times with sweaty, dirty hands and thought... "wow I am glad I had my UV filter on"

I have hoods for every lens I own... they are for a different type of protection IMO



This is really like asking if Nikon or Canon is better, you will get different responses from many different people.
http://maxsaver.net/ <-- this is where I order my filters from for the most part. It takes 2-3 weeks but its a good value.