L series lenses, which filters?

Lets say I bought an 17-40mm....which I am soooooo close to doing. Would it really be worth sticking on a cheap filter, lets say Hoya CP (the cheapest one), as the 77mm filters cost a fortune..(over £50 for a cheapest one) ...or would this render the greatness of the lens a bit useless?

Inmho filters on digital cameras are not as usefull as on film . cs2 will give all you need except for polarisers . shoot two (or more)different exposures of the same shot and with a bit of manipulation this can produce some very good effects .saves all that fumbling about with plastic and glass and no loss of light

Simply for protection, I put a 77 mm MRC B+W UV filter that cost about 50 EUR on my 80-200/2.8 ... you might try to compare prices from different dealers.

Best regards,
Andy

It's going to pricey whatever I do right! I guess I can live without A CPL for a while....

Malcomx, I ditched my Cokin filters once i started playing with the exposure setting of Raw, now I just layer two pics in PS....I love RAW!

I'll probably get roasted alive for this but I think this is the one time when a cheap filter might be better than no filter at all.
I'm talking about a CP filter. You can't replicate that in PS.
I use a relatively cheap CP on my 17-40 and the results are OK. ( At least no one has said " Look at that image, you must be using a cheapo CP )

Maybe one day I'll get a Lee CP.

Before buying a filter for protection, read this: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/​sm-feb-05.shtml

I don't think he's talking about protection.
He mentions a CP filter which should only be used for a specific reason, not protection.

Yes, but someone else brought up UV filters so I wanted to make sure.

You're quite right, so they did.

I only use Heliopan or B+W filters. However, except for the fact that the rings are aluminum rather than brass (and thus prone to seizing) I have read, on good athority, that in the case of CPs that the modestly priced Tiffen filters are (distortion wise) top rate.

The 17-40mm is maybe a bit of a special case, as it's only fully weather sealed once it has a filter on the front - could be important factor in some situations, like dusty or wet.

Rob

I guess my question is: Will using a cheapo filter UV or CP have a detramental effect on the images the lens produces (beariing in mind the not using a filter at all argumant...) I ask as a £550 lens becomes a £600+ lens if using cheapo filters....it becomes a £700= lens if using High Quality Coated whatever lenses...

Neilyb wrote:
I guess my question is: Will using a cheapo filter UV or CP have a detramental effect on the images the lens produces (beariing in mind the not using a filter at all argumant...) I ask as a £550 lens becomes a £600+ lens if using cheapo filters....it becomes a £700= lens if using High Quality Coated whatever lenses...

Neil, see my previous post, but yes all filters will have a slight detrimental effect ( some worse than others ). If you can't stretch to the more expensive don't worry. I use a Hoya CP ( £58 from WarehouseExpress) on my 17-40 and I have no complaints.

IMO, any filter will impact the image. Whether it is deterimental will have to be determined by you.

Cheers guys!