Quality Filters? Help and recommendations

[stanj]

Thank you Don. I am not in the market for a new camera since I already exceeded my budget getting my first DSRL last week, a Nikon D90 with a couple lenses. I am trying to learn about digital cameras and their use by experimenting, reading and asking lots of questions. Someone told me today that there are camera repair techs who will remove the IR filter for about $50 but I am not going to modify anything on my camera, mostly just curious. Thank you again
Stan

[Rooz]

ahhh...i love the "filter or no filter" discussions. i used to be a non-UV filter guy until a flying rock shattered my CPL that i had mounted to a 70-200/2.8 at the time. never happened before and wll probably never happen again but just in case...from that point onward, filters on. i have a UV filter on every lens i own and have done for a while now. i have found there is absolutely zero degradation in IQ so long as you buy high quality filters. i have done numeorus tests with filter on and off of the exact same subject and never, ever have i been able to pick a difference.

B+W is not overkill at all becasue if you choose to put glass in front of your optics, it should be the best you can get imo.

i have used hoya and i ddint like them. so i switched everything to B+W. i'm not advising you to get filters. its a personal decision. i'm just relaying my own experience with them.

[Rooz]

Keep in mind glass is harder than steel, and these lenses have special coatings so they are probably even harder than normal. There are almost no materials on earth besides a few precious and semi-precious gems that could scratch one.

hmmm....
have you ever tried this theory out ? i reckon a dime and a bad attitude would completely destroy the glass on a lens. anyone willing to pony up and give it a shot ? Don, you got heaps of redundant Canon glass..give us a test will ya mate ?

[DonSchap]

Well, I did take a Canon "kit lens" out for testing at the skeet range ...

"PULL!!!"



"Not too durable, without a UV-filter!" was my conclusion, quite similar to yours, 'Rooz'.

[Rhys]

ahhh...i love the "filter or no filter" discussions. i used to be a non-UV filter guy until a flying rock shattered my CPL that i had mounted to a 70-200/2.8 at the time. never happened before and wll probably never happen again but just in case...from that point onward, filters on. i have a UV filter on every lens i own and have done for a while now. i have found there is absolutely zero degradation in IQ so long as you buy high quality filters. i have done numeorus tests with filter on and off of the exact same subject and never, ever have i been able to pick a difference.

B+W is not overkill at all becasue if you choose to put glass in front of your optics, it should be the best you can get imo.

i have used hoya and i ddint like them. so i switched everything to B+W. i'm not advising you to get filters. its a personal decision. i'm just relaying my own experience with them.

I've always been a belt and braces kinda guy. No point in taking a risk. I do know there's a difference between cheap and expensive filters. At one time when I was living in the UK, I had some cheap Jessops filters (Jessops is an expensive chain of photographic retail stores). Anyway, I compared them with Hoya SMC filters and what a difference! The Jessops filters acted as diffusers rather than anything else!

[TheWengler]

ahhh...i love the "filter or no filter" discussions. i used to be a non-UV filter guy until a flying rock shattered my CPL that i had mounted to a 70-200/2.8 at the time. never happened before and wll probably never happen again but just in case...from that point onward, filters on. i have a UV filter on every lens i own and have done for a while now.

What were you doing where there were rocks flying through the air? Did you have your hood on at the time?

[raven15]

I took a thumbtack to my new UV filter to test the theory. To my surprise, it scratched the filter, so I decided not to try it on a lens.

Looks like my hardness chart lied. It is possible it wasn't scratched so much as slightly crumbled on the surface, cause I was pushing pretty hard.

Funny, I know I've used a straight blade to clean windows before.

[jedinite]

This has indeed turned into a interesting discussion for something seemingly so trivial. At least I now know what brands of lens filters I should go with and perhaps what is worth it and what is overkill.

CPL doesn't seem like a bad idea because it helps with enriching some shots. And I don't know about having something as hard or fast as a rock hit the lens, but the comfort of knowing that accidental sprays of sand - when taking beach shots on a windy day - land on a filter vs landing on a lens seems like it's worth the additional cost for a good filter that won't impair a shot and that will be sacrificed instead of a $1300 lens. That was rather a long sentence so I hope it made sense.

I'm not going to test out the hardness of lens glass, I'll leave that to the pros

[Rooz]

What were you doing where there were rocks flying through the air? Did you have your hood on at the time?

http://www.dcresource.com/forums/sho...ht=filter+rock

Funny, I know I've used a straight blade to clean windows before.

yepp, but you always keep it at a slight angle to the glass, never using a pointed end. you use the full side of the blade face.

[achuang]

Where do you get your B+W filters from? Only a couple of my lenses have UV filters but I think I should probably get some for protection outdoors.