How does a UV filter enhance my photos?

[KmH]

Nah. It doesn't take much of a hit to shatter a clear or UV filter, and as far as vibration having any effect on the rest of the lens, it would depend on the mode of vibration, it's amplitude and it's direction.

Where do you think the shattered pieces of that UV filter are going? Right into your lens. They aren't completely useless because they keep dust off, but you still have to clean the dust off the filter before shooting, just as you would have to clean it off your lens. So whats the difference?

Better glass shards on your lens than the front element being the one broken. I have scratched filters before even though I had the lens hood on. Also if you are going to sell a lens how well do you think one will sell with a scratch on it?
The difference is Id rather keep wiping things off of an inexpesive element over an expensive one. Also it depends on where you live some places are dustier than others. Like where I live. When I visit back easst I dont usually have the same problem so the filters are off.

Those shards usually gouge right into the objective glass they were supposed to 'protect', which is one of the main reasons why I advocate against using filters for 'protection'.

Once the filter is shattered and the metal holding the shards to the outer mount is bent, you put nice round scratches on the objective glass when you're able to unscrew the now destroyed filter. Frequently, getting a broken, shattered filter off the lens is a real trick necessitating a trip to the repair shop just to get it off.

Joves,

I lived in Tucson until late 2005, a desert environment much dustier than your mountain environment around Flagstaff.

I found a brush and blower removed dust with no problem. For me wiping a lens with a lens tissue, or anything else, is a last resort and to be avoided if at all possible, not a routine. I think last year I wiped one of my lenses twice, and another once but other than the brush and blower none of the others was touched.

Filters are flat, thin, and much easier to break than objective lenses as a general rule.

Objective glass is frequently backed by other glass elements making it a real task to break that type of objective.

Other types of lens have the objective thin in the middle but very robust as you approach the edges, like a fisheye lens, and most of those you can't put a filter on anyway.

 

[burstintoflame81]

I live in Phoenix, I know it can get dusty, and at times they are useful. I try to avoid extreme dusty situations anyway, but the majority of the time UV filters are crap that stores use as an easy upsell and everyone falls for it. The point I was making about the shards of glass is that your lens is going to get damaged too. How far away from that filter do you think your front element is? go take your lens outside with the filter on it and whack it with something hard enough to shatter that filter if you are so confirdent that it will protect it.