Tiffen Haze-1 a good idea?

[guitarman3]

I have a clear lens 'filter' on my Canon lens basically for 'protection' of the lens glass. This filter is a Tiffen Haze-1. Is this something that is commonly done by folks (using a clear colorless lens cover)? Is this a good thing to do? Could it affect the sharpness of my images?

[SkipD]

A lot of folks do use filters as "protection". Many others, myself included, use lens hoods for protection - both against stray light and physical contact.

If there is a light source in or near your photo subject, I would not be surprised to see some flare in the photo when using a filter. Thus, I won't add a filter to my lenses unless there is a creative reason or I intend to shoot in conditions like in a sandstorm.

The filter I use most often is a polarizing filter to control reflections of light off water, darken a blue sky, etc. I don't even own "clear" filters for any of my lenses. I used to use colored filters for contrast control when doing B&W film work many years ago.

There are numerous threads covering this subject on this forum and others.

[guitarman3]

Thanks Skip. Very helpful post. I'll check for other posts on the subject too. I may just take the filter off as I doubt it can be helping my pictures any.