Just ordered my 70-200 f4 IS....quick question

So I took advantage of Ebay's last few days of Bing cash back and jumped on a 70-200 f4 IS finally. It should arrive on Monday. Should I, or should I not get some sort of protection filter for it? It will have the hood, so there's some protection with that.

Thoughts?

If you have this lens, do you keep a filter on it? If so, which one? If not, please tell me exactly how you go about cleaning the front glass.

You might want to take a look at the Protective Filter FAQ "sticky" post at the top of this page. Lots of information and discussion about filters there.

This is a matter of personal preference. Check out the protective filter FAQ at the top of the page, or do a search for "filter vs no filter" or something along those lines, and grab some popcorn. Ultimately, there are lots of people who use filters for protection, and lots of people who think it is superfluous.

If you do decide to go with a protective filter, most people will recommend a multi-coated filter (UV or clear). The top picks are the high end offerings from Hoya, Heliopan, and B+W, particularly the B+W Kaesseman MRC, the B+W non-Kaesseman MRC, the Hoya HD, and the Hoya Super HMC, to name a few.

In the case of the 70-200mm f/4 IS lens, Canon apparently requires attaching a filter to complete the weather sealing.

I live in Phx. So it's a pretty easy decision since there is much dust outside in the middle of a desert.

If the environment does not warrant it, I would suggest to try shooting w/ and w/o filter to make up your own mind. My own testing shows that lousy filter degrades IQ significantly while decent filter does like (B+W, HOYA multi-coated UV filters) do not degrade IQ.

I have a BW MRC UV filter on it, and i cant see any difference between the 'filtered' shots and the naked ones

Thanks everyone. I think I've decided to purchase a B+W filter for it.

shaftmaster wrote in post #10628926
In the case of the 70-200mm f/4 IS lens, Canon apparently requires attaching a filter to complete the weather sealing.

Are you sure? I'm fairly certain that it is weather sealed without a filter. There are only a few Canon lenses that require a filter to complete sealing.

It's a moot point anyhow as the OP's camera isn't weather-proof.