• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

UV filter or no UV filter: that is the question! (1 Viewer)

glm2006ITALY

Italian User
Hello everyone!
To take pictures using a Canon 7D "old" combined with a Canon USM L 400 f / 5.6

I ALWAYS use a UV filter to protect the lens from damage and dirt.

I did notice that the photographs are a great distance as "knead"

You use the UV filter?
You could be the one?

Now I'm using a HOYA HMC UV(c) but I ordered these days more and the HOYA Pro 1 Digital

What are your experiences and impressions?
 
Its a can of worms the filter or not question,you will not get a scientific answer as there are no sensible tests out there with conclusions you can trust.
Some will say why put another lump of glass in front of the lens,all i will say is do your own tests,the people who tell you not to do it will not pay for your lens if you damage the front element.
If you decide not to i would say still have one handy for salty and sandy atmospheres,a filter normally will not protect from impact damage your lens hood should do that.
 
You can't use a front filter with lots of the bigger telephoto lenses and there's more value to protect in them. That said the lens hood is deeper.
I don't use front filters and prefer not to shoot from behind a window too but that said there are lots of instances were togs are using filters for other reasons like polarising ones so they don't feel the image is degraded. The big telephoto lenses have a drop in filter at the rear end so again, another layer of glass.
I have a minute scratch on the front end of my 70-200. It doesn't show in an image but neither would it have been there on the glass had I used a front filter. My mistake to forget to put the lens cap on after putting it away in my camera bag.
If you feel you need one, use one. Lots of people do.
 
UV filter

I usually use front uv/protector filters especially on long /expensive lenses!
If you use a good make of filter ie Hoya or similar quality it doesn't degrade the image to any visible degree. They are much cheaper and easier to replace than a new front element. I did once buy a 72mm polarising filter which cost all of £8 new,unfortunately I couldn't focus the lens at all with it attached! Buy a good one, quality always shows.
 
Thank you all for the replies!
These days they are very busy with work but as soon as I arrive the new Hoya UV filter I want to try running some tests

I will post the results
 
when I first bought my 100-400mm lens, I also bought what I thought was a decent quality front end filter. I travelled to Morocco and when I got back I ended up throwing away virtually all of my images which exhibited "ghosting" to some degree or other.
I threw away the filter and have been happy with my decision since. I always apply the lens hood for protection.
 
I have a friend of mine who is a retired Professional Photographer and the two of sit down once or twice a month and he works with me on the skills, has helped me set up my camera to get the best quality that I can out of my shots. The first thing that Mike told me was to get a filter for the front of my lens if nothing else it will like others pointed out help protect it.

I also shoot a lot of fire scenes, fire equipment, police vehicles, etc and when I do I always use a Polarizer Filter to cut glare out of the shot. Mike pointed out that another use for this type of filter is that when shooting wildlife and landscape shoots it cuts down on the glare from the leaves etc.

It really boils down to your own preference and choice. I am planning on going Camping at Valley of Fire State Park outside of Las Vegas in March and I am planning on adding a Decent Graduated Neutral-Density filter to my set up before I go. But there again it is like I said personnel preference and I tend to listen to what Mike tells me about equipment and shooting. And he speaks very highly of the filters.
 
I use the pro 1D ilters mainly as you can clean the lens if it rains in the field without fear of wrecking the objective. I've scratched a couple but they are easier to replace if you have to alternatively if you get a grubster you can whip the filter off to reveal pristine clean glass. Furthermore, the metal ring provides a sacrificial bumper if you are a bit heavy handed. There's more to all those people who say why put a piece of cheep glass in front of your lens, pound for pound I bet an pro 1D filter is as good if not better quality than the objective glass. Filters all the way I say!
 
Last edited:
Girlfriend had a Hoya UV filter on the front of a used NIKKOR 70-300 zoom (hooked to a D700 camera) and she was having alot of trouble with autofocus for reasons we though for a long time where a funky lens or a problem with the camera itself...the images were ever so slightly out of focus, just enough to be irritating if you have a good eye and slight lighting issues I couldn't quite discern a cause.

We cleaned the lens and the filter to no avail.

After weeks of this, it finally occurred to me to take the filter off and...both problems vanished. I was a bit surprised honestly, but there it was. Either the filter was a dud/lemon, or the 70-300 didn't like the extra glass.

After that I read dozens of articles about the pros and cons of having a filter out front for lens protection and for other reasons and decided...it was personal preference; each camp has it's own religion with no clear winner. We decided to leave the filter off the DSLR setup, but I still keep it on my little digiscoping camera (helps image quality on that old camera); our other cameras don't accept filters.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top