This is a religious issue. If you're like Bob Whitmere and take photos
of the raging ocean while standing in the surf spray then you should
probably have some lens (and other) protection. But if you're just
trying to protect the glass from accidental impact you'll be *much*
better off with just a good lens hood.
Consider the type of impact that's likely to occur to your lens. It can
be straight on into the glass or come from the side into the filter
ring. If the impact comes straight on it will mash your filter and
grind the broken glass into the front element. After all, the filter is
only a few millimeters at most from that front element. So, filter or
not the front element is toast. If the impact comes from the side and
isn't too bad it will just bend the filter ring a bit. But if it's
really hard it can also crush the filter and retaining ring as well.
Once again, the filter glass gets smashed to smithereens and scrapes up
your front element with it. On the other hand, if there was a sturdy
lens hood attached the lens hood would take the brunt of the impact and
it doesn't have any shards to spread around to cause damage elsewhere.
"Protective" UV filters are great for camera store salesmen but not
always so great for you. Also, no matter how good it is there is no
filter that will not have at least some detrimental effect on the image.
Unfortunately, there are many that have a very detrimental impact on
image quality... even some of the expensive ones. Gary Reese, formerly
of this list, did extensive tests of filters using a vertical
autocollimator. The results were depressing. If you pay a lot for a
filter you have a better but not necessarily good chance of getting a
good one.
When I carry small lenses like those for OM's the lenses go into the bag
nose down with only a hood installed. No filter or lens cap except for
the rear. Very small lenses like a 50/1.8 may get stacked with another
lens but with a piece of stiff foam in between so the rear cap of the
bottom lens can't project into the front element of the lens on top.
Chuck Norcutt
Amin Sabet wrote:
>
> While I'm asking noob questions, here's one more - With my Canon DSLR
> lenses, I never use filters. However, with these "jewel-like" Zuikos,
> I feel compelled to protect them. Also, with film I'm not sure
> whether I need to have a UV filter even if the lens is multicoated.
> Can anyone recommend a good type of filter to leave on all the time?
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