Lens Protection

That's exactly what I was thinking "G". To globally say all filters do or do not affect anything is just truly someone walking around with some very high quality horse blinders.

Like anything in life, there are bad filters and good filters and everything in between.

I am sure there are filters who's detrimental effects are so low as to be very difficult to see and others, like the one that I own, that take a great lens and make it blatantly mediocre.

This thread has indeed turned ridiculous.
 
You lot are mad I say - mad!

anyway itznfb your test is slightly bias as you show it here - image resized for the net are very hard to tell apart image quality wise - heck a small point and shoot camera can give a largeformat Hassy a run for its money when images are scaled for the net. What you really need to look at are the pixel peeping scales - 50% to 100% (fullsize) crops of the shot - then you can see differences far more clearly.

As for filters - cheap glass is far more likley to be causing errant problems with your shots - causing softness, flare and aboration problems and sometimes more. Sure you can shoot through quite a bit of rubbish glass at times and still get a nice sharp shot (I have shot through enough zoo pens and windows to know this fact) but if given the choice I would rather not, and there is always the hightened chances of problems occuring (and they do) when one ends up in specific situations.

Highend filters I am sure will have little to no effect on sharpness, though in certain lighting conditions might still cause flare problems.

My own view is that if I use a filter I use a darn good one - and if I am in a dangerous environment for my lens, where material is likley to blow or come into contact with the front element (after bypassing my hood) then I will use a filter* otherwise my hood has protected my lens wel lthus far


*at least I would if I had one to use.....
 

Actually the thread topic specified lens filters labeled "protective". The only ones i know of are clear and colorless UV. Obviously lenses that are supposed to change the way shot looks will change the way the shot looks.

You lot are mad I say - mad!

anyway itznfb your test is slightly bias as you show it here - image resized for the net are very hard to tell apart image quality wise - heck a small point and shoot camera can give a largeformat Hassy a run for its money when images are scaled for the net. What you really need to look at are the pixel peeping scales - 50% to 100% (fullsize) crops of the shot - then you can see differences far more clearly.

As for filters - cheap glass is far more likley to be causing errant problems with your shots - causing softness, flare and aboration problems and sometimes more. Sure you can shoot through quite a bit of rubbish glass at times and still get a nice sharp shot (I have shot through enough zoo pens and windows to know this fact) but if given the choice I would rather not, and there is always the hightened chances of problems occuring (and they do) when one ends up in specific situations.

Highend filters I am sure will have little to no effect on sharpness, though in certain lighting conditions might still cause flare problems.

My own view is that if I use a filter I use a darn good one - and if I am in a dangerous environment for my lens, where material is likley to blow or come into contact with the front element (after bypassing my hood) then I will use a filter* otherwise my hood has protected my lens wel lthus far


*at least I would if I had one to use.....

here are the 100% right out of camera.

DSC_6672.jpg

DSC_6673.jpg


Almost every pro I know shoots with a Quantaray filter. The ones that don't use Tiffen. Why? Because they're cheap.
 
Almost every pro I know shoots with a Quantaray filter. The ones that don't use Tiffen. Why? Because they're cheap.

I know a heck of a lot of pro's who don't use filters. But at the same time, they don't really care nearly as much about relative sharpness as amateurs do, so it seems paradoxical.
 
Almost every pro I know shoots with a Quantaray filter. The ones that don't use Tiffen. Why? Because they're cheap.

I know a heck of a lot of pro's who don't use filters. But at the same time, they don't really care nearly as much about relative sharpness as amateurs do, so it seems paradoxical.


Ain't that the truth! You rarely hear of an "old" professional photog talking about 100 percent crops and pixel peeping sharpness.

Oh, I only use filters for extremely dusty environments. If I don't have one with me or am shooting at an angle to the sun that produces flare, I don't hesitate to keep shooting without one. Front element gets dusty, I blow it off with my mouth and wipe it with the corner of my t-shirt. To me, its a tool to do a job. If said tool gets broken, there are places that'll fix it. I see carpenters throw their tools all the time. LOL Seriously, when I first started I was so worried about my gear and babied to the point where it wasn't even fun to go out and shoot. Now its stress free and I have yet to have a single scratch on an element. A few hood scuffs...I use them all the time.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top