To UV or not to UV

beetle8 · June 10, 2008

There is a thread over in the sports forum related to one persons experience with a UV filter. The suggestion is that it may be causing hazy results. I have always put a UV filter on my lenses straight out of the box for protection thinking there was no affect to the result, but I've also wondered if everyone has to deal with the haziness the same way in PP to get the blacks back. I never put the two together until just now.
Anybody have a yay or nay on the UV filter as a constant just for protection?

jfriend · June 10, 2008

beetle8 wrote:

There is a thread over in the sports forum related to one persons experience with a UV filter. The suggestion is that it may be causing hazy results. I have always put a UV filter on my lenses straight out of the box for protection thinking there was no affect to the result, but I've also wondered if everyone has to deal with the haziness the same way in PP to get the blacks back. I never put the two together until just now.
Anybody have a yay or nay on the UV filter as a constant just for protection?

Here's the rule that I follow that I think is consistent with trying to get the maximum IQ out of your lenses. Don't put any extra glass in your optical path unless you absolutely need to for a specific beneficial result. For me, that leads to the following:

Use my hood as bump and finger protection. I only use a UV filter if I'm in a very harsh environment with either lots of dust or spray or rain. For general purpose use, I'd much rather not have two extra glass surfaces in my optical path that can lead to incremental distortion, flare and sometimes vignetting at wide angles and large apertures.
Don't use a circular polarizer unless you really need it and are shooting in a specific situation where you believe there's an advantage to it.
Don't put the teleconverter on unless you really need the extra reach. And the converse is, take the TC off as soon as you don't really need it any more.
Always bring appropriate lens cleaning stuff so if you get something on the lens, you have the right stuff to clean it.

Andy · June 10, 2008

Go naked unless you NEED a filter for a reason. Weather, conditions etc (like beach) can be reason for UV filter. Use hood like jfriend suggests, too.

pathfinder · June 10, 2008

jfriend wrote:

Here's the rule that I follow that I think is consistent with trying to get the maximum IQ out of your lenses. Don't put any extra glass in your optical path unless you absolutely need to for a specific beneficial result. For me, that leads to the following:
Use my hood as bump and finger protection. I only use a UV filter if I'm in a very harsh environment with either lots of dust or spray or rain. For general purpose use, I'd much rather not have two extra glass surfaces in my optical path that can lead to incremental distortion, flare and sometimes vignetting at wide angles and large apertures.

Don't use a circular polarizer unless you really need it and are shooting in a specific situation where you believe there's an advantage to it.

Don't put the teleconverter on unless you really need the extra reach. And the converse is, take the TC off as soon as you don't really need it any more.

Always bring appropriate lens cleaning stuff so if you get something on the lens, you have the right stuff to clean it.

Yup,

Go naked in the world, unless it is raining, snowing, sand is blowing, salt is spraying, paintballs are flying, etc etc.

But always, always, wear a hard lens hood to protect your lens element from the hard, bad things in life, like the wall in Antelope Canyon.....

beetle8 · June 10, 2008

OK I'm gonna do it, I'm taking them off.

dlplumer · June 10, 2008

All new to me. I think I'm going naked.

To UV or not to UV

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