lens filters

[blooper]

i just bought a couple lens filters for my digital rebel this afternoon.

i got a uv lens, a polarized lens, and a y2 lense(yellow color filter) that was said to be good for b&w shots.

just curious if these would be of any use for a digital camera. i probably should have asked before i bought them. but i was gonan get a uv filter anyway... and then the polarizer i would use if i were ever to take my 50mm out in the sun. the yellow is kind of part of the deal, it was buy 2 get 1 freee kinda thing. the yellow was the free one. any thoughts?

so far about the yellow lens, i havent noticed anything spectacular about it.

 

[Torus34]

Buying things without knowing what they do is certainly adventurous, but not necessarily productive.

First, check to make sure that the polarizing filter is a circular polarizer, not a linear polarizer. If it is a linear polarizer, take it back and exchange it for a circular polarizer.

The UV filter is usually used as a protective device. It is kept on the lens to prevent damage to the front lens element. If the UV filter is scratched, it's relatively cheap to replace. Not like a lens. If you are going to use another filter, remove the UV filter first. Avoid using two filters together wherever possible to avoid vignetting the image.

The Y2 filter is used in b&w film photography. Its function is to correct the translation of colors to grays so that they approximate what the human eye sees in terms of density. It will make blues in a scene darker. It is often thought of as a means to make clouds stand out more in a landscape shot. To the best of my knowledge, it has no purpose in digital photography.

 

[fmw]

The Y2 filter is used in b&w film photography. Its function is to correct the translation of colors to grays so that they approximate what the human eye sees in terms of density. It will make blues in a scene darker. It is often thought of as a means to make clouds stand out more in a landscape shot. To the best of my knowledge, it has no purpose in digital photography.

I'm not sure it has any purpose either. I wonder, though, if it would do the same thing in a digital shot if the image is intended to be converted to gray scale. It would be a yellow image in color, of course, but it might have the intended effect after making the image gray scale. I've never tried it. Has anyone else?

 

[blooper]

thanks for the tip about the polarizer.

yea, the Y2 lens was the one i was most curious about. i didnt know whether i would make use of it at all when i purchased it. i was testing it last night, didnt get too many results from it. ill try some more today before i make a decision whether to return it or not.

but if i do exchange the yellow lens, any other type of filter would yuo suggest besides the ones ive already have?

 

[Big Mike]

Maybe exchange the yellow filter for a lens hood...it will be a lot more useful.

A polarizer is about the only filter that is hard or impossible to replicate with photoshop etc. So that one is great. The UV is for protection. Other than that...there is not much you will need. Maybe a ND filter, to give you longer shutter speeds, when you need them.

 

[blooper]

ooo lens hood. might look into that. whats an ND filter? i returned the yellow, thought it was stupid that the sales person would suggest that.

 

[Big Mike]

ND is Neutral Density...bascally it's just grey and blocks light.

An ND filter would be good if you were shooting a waterfall, for example, and you wanted to get a longer shutter speed than you normally could. It is kind of specialized, so you might never use it...but it's one of those things that you can't easily duplicate with digital.