UV Filters

brent.n · Apr 23, 2007

Hello
i have a UV Filter on all my lenses to protect them and i have noteced that they have little speckles over them when you hold them to the light, that i cant clean off, will this affect the image in any way
Cheers

Garbz · Apr 23, 2007

Little speckles? Probably not. Depending on how small they are they may not be visible at all since the filter itself will be out of focus.

JDP · Apr 23, 2007

The question is 'Do you have a GOOD UV filter?" if it's a cheap one, and you've been using the camera a fair amount, I bet it's the coating degrading

Boden · Apr 23, 2007

I have a question in this regard as well: how important is the quality of a UV filter? Is a $20 multicoated UV filter "good enough", or is there a benefit to a $60 B&W UV filter? How about the cheaper $10 UV filters? ("Good enough" = non-professional, hobby photography with DSLR)

RacePhoto · Apr 23, 2007

Boden said:
I have a question in this regard as well: how important is the quality of a UV filter? Is a $20 multicoated UV filter "good enough", or is there a benefit to a $60 B&W UV filter? How about the cheaper $10 UV filters? ("Good enough" = non-professional, hobby photography with DSLR)

* warning opinion follows *

Last time I looked at a UV filter for a new lens (one week ago) they tried to sell me the "digital" filter instead of the standard UV filter. $39 or $49? I said, what's the difference.

"Well the digital filter is thinner" (and $10 more!) Kind of reminds me of low salt food, where they charge extra to NOT put something in.

I bought the standard filter.

If you can find a $10 UV filter, you probably don't want to put it in front of your nice lens and ruin your images. I may be wrong, but generally you do get what you pay for and at $10 I'd be afraid that the filter would soon delaminate or get spots or do something like turn blue and make all my pictures Pink!

At $20 you are looking at who made it, because it might be identical to the name brand, made in the same factory, with a store brand on it. (or NOT having a chain photo store name on it) You would have to list the specific filter maker, and maybe people here will know more about it. Might be a good deal at a store that charges reasonable prices. Might be junk.

What brand?

Boden · Apr 23, 2007

RacePhoto said:
What brand?

Hoya and Sigma are around the $20 mark. (52mm)

xfloggingkylex · Apr 23, 2007

The reason they charge you more for less is all about manufacturing techniques. It is much cheaper to make a big slab of glass filter than it is to make a very slim (and still durable) filter. The same is true for much of technology, computer chips for example have been decreasing in size, yet when 90nm chips hit the market (much smaller than previous chip sets) they were very very expensive.

I personally dont use a UV filter at all.

RacePhoto · Apr 23, 2007

Boden said:
Hoya and Sigma are around the $20 mark. (52mm)

I guess I paid too much, but it was a 77mm filter. :lol:

Both are good name brands. I also have some Calumet, Promaster and some off brand company "Canon"

and have had good results.

Kristie · Apr 23, 2007

Hoya here is like $70 for one filter!

Is Merkury Innovations a good brand? I just bought a filter kit off e-bay. (UV, polarized and Fluorescent)

Seefutlung · Apr 23, 2007

I belong to a photo group here in SoCal, LAShooters. We did a very practical/empirical test of UV fliters, same camera and lens and subject, lighting et cetera, we used a cheap UV, expensive UV and no UV, at 100% crop you couldn't tell the any difference between them all.

Ranger · Apr 23, 2007

I just bought a $10 filter, and after reading this topic I guess that may have not been the best idea, but it was the only one offered at BestBuy and I was sick of the people at Wolf Camera.

Oh well, if it doesnt work out or effects images ill just buy a new one. . .

Boden · Apr 23, 2007

I have read that one difference might be that a multicoated filter will perform better in certain lighting situations (e.g. less glare or something). Can anyone comment? (sorry if I hijacked this thread)

xfloggingkylex · Apr 23, 2007

Boden said:
I have read that one difference might be that a multicoated filter will perform better in certain lighting situations (e.g. less glare or something). Can anyone comment? (sorry if I hijacked this thread)

while I havent compared direct, I know that with this cheap Quantaray 1A UV filter, I tended to get ghosting in many of my shots. Haven't used a multicoated UV, but my multicoated polarizer does just fine with no problems. Of course this is apples to oranges so take it for what it is.

Seefutlung · Apr 23, 2007

xfloggingkylex said:
while I havent compared direct, I know that with this cheap Quantaray 1A UV filter, I tended to get ghosting in many of my shots. Haven't used a multicoated UV, but my multicoated polarizer does just fine with no problems. Of course this is apples to oranges so take it for what it is.

Ghosting comes from shooting into or nearly into a light source. All UV filters will cause ghosting regardless of cost. Only way to eliminate ghosting is to remove the filter when shooting into a light source. And that action will only remove the ghosting caused by the filter, some lenses will ghost w/out a filter.

Gary