Newbie - Canon 350D - Filters Help

Hi All,

Anyone have any recommendations for filters?
Should I buy a UV Filter and does it have to be on permanently?
Or should I buy a Polarising Filter as I want to shoot some landscapes?
Also can anyone recommend a good quality cheap make / brand?

cheers guys...

The filters that you need to have in your bag are:

1. Circular Polarizer - for removing glare, darkening blue skies and increaseing contrast, removing haze.
2. Grad Neutral Density - for balancing exposure between sky and land.
3. A set of Neutral Density - for allowing for larger apertures or slower shutter speeds in bright light.

You don't NEED a UV filter for protection unless you're shooting in windy conditions where water spray or sand/grit might hit the front of your lens. A rigid hood provide plenty of protection for the front of your lens provided you use it consistently.

You may want a UV filter for the conditions above, and you may even decide to keep it on your lens full time (some people do) for added protection, but if you do so, you need to get a good multi-coated filter so that you minimize the image degradation that will result from putting an extra glass/air interface on your lens.

Mark

B&W has very good filters at good prices, cheaper even than Hoya.

What Mark said.

I'll add undergrowth and dog noses to the list of risks Mark's listed. Propwash and jetwash fall under the extreme end of the "windy conditions" spectrum. All of those are why I always mount an UV on my lenses first thing. I'm standardizing on B+W MRC for UV and polarizers; Singh-Ray for GND.
Ain't no such animal as "good quality, cheap make / brand". It's either/or.

This has been debated over & over, all I will say is try a UV on your lens & see if you notice any difference, if you dont then I would leave it on, IF you get a situation where you think the UV might be causing flare then you can always remove it, so far ive not had any ruined images from a UV.

I like to use one all the time as I am often cleaning the UV from fingerprints & dust but when I do take it off the actual lens which is more expensive than a UV doesnt even have 1 spec of dust on it, the UV on my lens at least is acting as a dust seal, I heard that certain Canon lenses require a UV to complete the dust seal, well ive certainly found that to be true with my Sigma 17-70.

Try it & see... a polariser is worth having but it does cut down the amount of light by 1 stop but they do a great job on landscapes & are also handy for taking macro shots if you have any reflection from plastic or glass etc..

Nick

When I got my XT (2 weeks ago), I came across a display of filters on an end cap. They were about $25 each - SUNPAK brand. I know nothing of this company and I am new to the whole photography thing, but for $25 I'd figure what the heck.

The UV one I bought has been great. I have not noticed anything wrong with any of my photos. I have to clean it all the time, so I know that it's saving my expensive lens. So for $25, I feel it was one of the best investments I made when I spent $700 just for the camera and lens.

My husband and I are biologists and shoot outdoors. He started taking pictures about 50 years before I did and has always been a fanatic about ALWAYS keeping a filter on the camera --a simple UV or haze filter. In simplest terms, it keeps dust off the lens.
And plant parts. And (I'm the botanist) it keeps twigs from scratching the lens. And it keeps my parka zipper --or the cloth-- from scratching the lens when the camera's being carried. A filter is terrific physical protection. Every time I slide down a hill (to be accurate, when a hill and I slide down) I think Thank heaven I've got the filter on. Generally, I have a lens cap on also --but it can be knocked off.

Tests I've tried don't show a lot of difference between no filter, a haze filter, and a UV filter (with several lenses the same size I got different filters each time, to see if there was a difference). If any of these suck light, it's minimal. I do have an 'ultra-clear' filter on the lens that I use in the lowest light (also the least haze or sky-glare conditions). There, I think it makes a bit of difference in making use of the light. The haze/ UV filters do seem to sharpen the colors a bit, as the filter-makers claim, in some conditions.

Because I knew I'd be leaving the filter on all the time, I got the best quality I could find under, I guess, about $50. The Ultraclear was a bit more, I think. Most of them are the best Tiffen makes. The Hoya's probably better but $20 difference? I dunno. One lens had a cheap filter on it (my husband's) and there WAS a difference.

As someone points out somewhere (not this thread), it is one more layer of glass. Someday I might want to take a filter off a lens --for one shot.

If you end up shooting a lot of sideways shots, the Canon hoods are a real pain. They only lock onto the lens with the big 'leaf' on top when the camera's held 'normally,' to take a picture that's wider than long. And hoods don't keep dust off the camera. I feel like a filter is a lot more protection.

While it's a lot cheaper to scratch a filter hastily wiping dust off it than to scratch a lens, mine seem to be quite washable. I rinse them in coolish water, rinse our hard water off with distilled, pat dry and make sure the inside is really really dry before putting the filter back on the camera. The air's usually dry here and I've never seen steam on the lens or filter after it's back on. (Shhh! I often dry the inside with rubbing alcohol before wiping or patting dry -- there are some horror stories here about using it on other parts of the camera and I'm not sure how good an idea it is.)

I'm with makphoto -- the dust and stuff I clean off my filters is frightening. And those coatings on the lenses look awfully soft.

Of all the filters mentioned, I'd put off the circular polarizer for a while. Judging from my results, there's a learning curve, and I have yet to run across a situation where it was needed. I ditched all the comparison shots with it (now I wish I'd kept some). Landscapes that were fine or needed minimal adjustment with the other filters were disastrous with the circular polarizer (even with f-stop adjustments for it). I suspect it would be a great help where there was sand or water.

Thanks for all the advice.

I opted to get a Hoya Multi-Coated UV Filter as I think its safer for my lenses which always seem to get dust and smudges on them. I'm still looking for a Circular Polarizing Filter, but will probably get a Hoya as well.