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To UV or Not To UV That Is The Question

Martin,

If you're in the habit of falling onto jagged rocks while taking pictures, well, maybe. If not, save your dough.

Joe
 
A lot of shops make most of their profit on a new camera out of overcharging for the UV filter and the memory card.

However without a skylight filter or UV filter you can get a colour cast in some conditions from some cameras depending on the film / sensor.

In the case of the Leica M8 you need a UV/IR filter to stop blacks going purple, so you can imagine that in cameras where this doesn't happen they probably have some kind of filter on the sensor anyway.

So, basically, what Joe said is mostly right, IMO

Cliff

PS Some UV filters cause vignetting on wide angle lenses, so don't use them wide unless they are designed for the job
 
In general, no.

I use a skylight filter on my canon 17-40 since this helps with the weather sealing, and I do tend to use this down by the sea, and it's easier to clean salt off the filter than off the lens.

So in general I don't use filters except for real effects (colour filters for B&W and a polariser all as cokin filters).

Cesare
 
FWIW, I don't use UV or skylight filters. They seem to alter the contrast and colour balance in a way I don't like, even though they are supposed to be relatively neutral. I use yellow, orange or red filters (for monochrome film), and polarising, neutral grey and gradated filters for both monochrome and colour. For large format colour, more often than not I'm not using any filter at all. I also agree that a lensehood is a more effective way of protecting a lense and reducing flare, etc.
 
cliffpatte said:
A lot of shops make most of their profit on a new camera out of overcharging for the UV filter ...In the case of the Leica M8 you need a UV/IR filter to stop blacks going purple,
Click to expand...

So a £3k camera/lens needs a UV filter??!!
 
Cav said:
So a £3k camera/lens needs a UV filter??!!
Click to expand...

Cav, most manufacturers put the UV/IR filtration on the so called low pass filter stuck on the sensor itself. Unfortunately Kodak cocked up the design they were subcontracted by Leica to produce with the result that the sensor remains over sensitive to both UV and IR light. Anyone paying £3k for a camera can afford £58 for a filter to go on their £7K Noctilux lens. Nice results too, for a £10,058 combo

:)
 
2517247002_bd8a9dd507.jpg


Oh, damnation, its out of focus

;-)
 
Were at 5,000 feet or higher, I'd probably focus on a hot coffee. I've a series from Haleakala (11,000 feet), where I used the filtration I described above which seemed to work OK.
 
Incidentally, are the usual red, orange, green and yellow filters I used to use for B&W film any use at all on a DSLR?
 
Alex,

Yes, if CCD and CMOS sensors didn't have little RGB filters/lenses over the pixel elements.

Joe
 
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