Boring filter question

I bought a uv filter for my 85 1.2 purely to protect the front element.
Regardless of lens, does anyone have any idea if these things degrade image quality?

My thanks in advance for any responses,

yes, depending on filter, it could be minimal or a lot. You may get flare with some oblique light sources.

It's a hoya UV filter. My concern would be changes in colour balance, loss of contrast and colour saturation and possibly sharpness but that's not a biggie.
Thanks.

I don't use protection filters on any lens. I do use hoods on all my lenses. Opinions vary on this, widely. I've never had a hood negatively impact an image.

Use a hood instead.

Filters may or may not affect an image. Some people are for and some are against filters. Often the preference is very strongly held. Use of filters tends to bring out high emotions in photographers.

fordmondeo wrote in post #18028906
It's a hoya UV filter. My concern would be changes in colour balance, loss of contrast and colour saturation and possibly sharpness but that's not a biggie.
Thanks.

Hoya has a big variety, hard to say. Hoya HD has been good for me, do have a hoya polarizer, pure junk.

fordmondeo wrote in post #18028897
I bought a uv filter for my 85 1.2 purely to protect the front element.
Regardless of lens, does anyone have any idea if these things degrade image quality?

My thanks in advance for any responses,

What is it that you are expecting the filter to protect the lens from.

Remember that the front element of the lens is a hell of a lot tougher than the wafer thin piece of glass in the filter.

I used to use a UV filter to "protect" my front element, but when I dropped the lens it broke the filter, which then made a small mark on the font element, and since then I occasionally get flares that I didn't get before. The one thing the filter ring did was to stop the filter thread on the lens getting damaged. So I could say that a glassless filter ring might be of use. The lens fell out of the bag when it got dropped, so the hood was reversed unfortunately.

As my lens is a ultra wide for 35mm format, and I am using it as a standard zoom on APS-C the lens hood is not that efficient. It would be good to find a hood that would cover 35-70 on the 35mm format in an 82mm fitting, as that would be much closer to the actual angle of view.

Alan

See
http://petapixel.com …ally-protect-your-lenses/

BigAl007 wrote in post #18028940
I used to use a UV filter to "protect" my front element, but when I dropped the lens it broke the filter, which then made a small mark on the font element, and since then I occasionally get flares that I didn't get before. The one thing the filter ring did was to stop the filter thread on the lens getting damaged. So I could say that a glassless filter ring might be of use. The lens fell out of the bag when it got dropped, so the hood was reversed unfortunately.

As my lens is a ultra wide for 35mm format, and I am using it as a standard zoom on APS-C the lens hood is not that efficient. It would be good to find a hood that would cover 35-70 on the 35mm format in an 82mm fitting, as that would be much closer to the actual angle of view.

Alan

Oh the filter was a top of the range Hoya, it cost about 50% of the cost of the lens at the time that I got it.

It may be a boring question since there is a dedicated sticky on this topic.

I once did a test with a B+W F-Pro UV-Filter on my EF 135 L. I found a minuscule decrease in sharpness noticeable not at 100% but at 400% pixel peeping. I also noticed ghost images of light sources in night shots – which usually persisted when I took the filter off.

Considering the effects of the sandblasting that my iPhone and cameras received in Kathmandu's omnipresent dust recently I am really grateful for protective filters on all my lenses. In demanding lighting conditions I can easily remove them.

Price-wise they are a total ripoff of course.

I always carry filters in case I am in an environment that would require protection of the front element or in some cases they will complete the weather sealing on certain lenses.

Having said that, I never use them. Only hoods.

Bonpu wrote in post #18028951
Price-wise they are a total ripoff of course.

Indeed.

And this is an issue - when a nervous newbie buys a new lens that looks so delicate, and the salesman offers the expensive solution.

Here is the link to the POTN sticky thread.

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=807555

wow the anti filter jihadis love this question . the answer is "not in usual conditions". you can remove a filter when conditions warrant just like you can install one when needed.

when do you use your seatbelt? as a default, or when you think you'll need it?

I rest my case