They used a spectrophotometer to measure the quality of the filters. Talk about scientific! And of course, they did some real life testing with the various filters. I thought it was a helpful/useful test. I'm going to test one of their suggest filters. I found one on ebay for $30, so not a bad investment/test since an el cheapo Tiffen costs about $10.
Here's what I look for mainly for UV filters:
Multiple coating - Why? Biggest practical reason is that my kids touch my filters and get their fingerprints all over it. yuck. but the multiple coating makes it easier to wipe away the fingerprints.
Mainly, i've been using it for lens protection. From my basic experience, I've found the quality of the filter does affect your outdoor shooting as the article shows with the various pictures.
Nice article with guys who did a lot of legwork! Really scientific.
ReplyDeleteI use mostly Hoya HMC (their multi-coat version) on my lenses, and I have a B+W MRC (again their name for 'multi-coat', a bit fancier with 'resin') on my 80-200L. Way I look at it, your lens is only as good as the glass in front of it - and the multi-coating has a much higher transmissivity than single-coat, or no-coat. You paid $$$ for that big, fast tele-zoom, might as well put a good quality filter in front so that it detracts from the image as little as possible =) On eBay, you'll find the Hoya HMC and B+W MRC filters for a good price, but long wait time (worth it in my opinion).
Like John I use the filter mostly for protection; better to wipe the filter than the lens' front element (which cannot be replaced). Btw, that may be a topic for a separate entry - how to properly clean the lens!
Finally, one word of caution - filters are great for protecting your lens, but not if you drop it. On my first 80-200L, the lens case (a huge tube) gave out on the bottom, dropping the lens face-first on the ground. The filter shattered, sending shards of glass into the front filter. Ouch. So after that I used it for a long time without a filter, which surprisingly turned out ok since I always used it with the hood. It probably helped that dust on telephoto lenses have less of an impact on the image.
what a sad story about that sweet lens.
ReplyDeleteIt gets worse: I left my camera bag at First Pres one day, and when I went back for it - poof, gone. Luckily I didn't have my body in there, but at that point the 80-200L was worth more than my 4-year-old 300D. Ouchie.
ReplyDeleteat Mt. Hermon someone totally ran into me as I was changing lenses to my 80-200L. Of course the cheaper Tamron didn't fall but the 80-200L did. It survived but there's something loose on the inside. Thankfully, photos still come out great! Go Magic Drainpipe!
ReplyDeletePersonally for me, I prefer using lens hoods in lieu of filters just in case something like what Maurice experienced happens. I remember taking pics for a gym nite once and out of nowhere, one of the balls used for dodgeball slammed into my lens. Luckily, I had my lens hood on so no damage to the lens.
ReplyDeleteOuchie, sounds like you got caught in the line of fire, Gordon! =)
ReplyDeleteBtw, eBay is a great source for replacement hoods and lens caps. The dSLR movement has gotten so big now that a lot of aftermarket (read: cheap) accessories for lenses are available - even tripod rings for the big telezooms. If using lens hoods for protection, might be good to keep in mind in case the next Rhino ball shatters your hood =)
yup, ebay is where i got my filters and hoods! sometimes you can get some good lenses there and get a squaretrade warranty on them. i'll save that for another post.
ReplyDelete