Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Quick UV filter question.

M

MichaelBarry

macrumors member
Original poster
Does a UV filter reduce the amount of light going to the sensor i.e will I get a slower shutter speed?

I was thinking of buying one, just to have constantly on my lens as protection.

How about this one?

Hoya UV standard filter

(on a very low budget). 🙂
 
I think buying cheap UV filters for protection just degrades your photos. If you really feel the protection is necessary, spend the money and get a good filter.

Personally I stopped putting protective filters on my lenses. They mainly (in my opinion) just protect the lens from small scratches, which wouldn't degrade the image quality anyway. But I know some people feel very strongly the opposite way.
 
MichaelBarry said:
Does a UV filter reduce the amount of light going to the sensor i.e will I get a slower shutter speed?
Click to expand...

it's possible, but i doubt it will be enough to reduce shutter speed.

every piece of glass (and air molecule, for that matter) between the subject and the sensor reduces light. this was a problem a few decades ago when making zoom lenses - zooms require more glass than primes, and there would be too much light loss as a result. now we use multicoated glass, so it's no longer a problem.

i believe there should be charts showing the light loss of different UV filters (at least within the same manufacturer). i think the best filters let in 99%+ of the light. uncoated ones will allow much less.
 
Whenever I buy a lens (and it's not very often... 🙁), I buy a skylight filter too (reasonable quality...). It's mostly to give me peace of mind, so I won't be worrying about damaging my lens. And, IMO, an unworried photographer takes better pictures... 🙂
 
Doylem said:
Whenever I buy a lens (and it's not very often... 🙁), I buy a skylight filter too (reasonable quality...). It's mostly to give me peace of mind, so I won't be worrying about damaging my lens. And, IMO, an unworried photographer takes better pictures... 🙂
Click to expand...

Agreed. When I bought all my new L Lenses, I went ahead and capped them off with Hoya UV Filters just to protect the glass. I'd rather scratch a $40 filter than a $1,500 lens! 😀
 
What do you need protection from? A filter provides limited protection in a fall, it mainly keeps junk off the front lens element and can (in some cases) slightly increase the weather resistance of some lenses.

When shooting concerts I use a filter as tons of water/sweat come flying off stage and I would rather not be wiping down the lens every hour. When taking shots in a controlled environment, there is no need for a filter.
 
Even in a controlled environment I wouldn't necessarily avoid one, so you may not have small pebbles flying at your lens, but it isn't impossible to get a scratch.

I have a scratch on one lens of my driving glasses, no idea how it got there as nothing hit them... no playing football.. not crazy antics... just my normal average life... $160 later to replace the lenses.....
 
brought a Hoya HMC UV filter last night so the decision has been made. 🙂

also brought a minolta 50mm 1.7 last night too so need one for that too haha.
 
I have always had a good UV lens on my cameras; I agree with both Doylem and jrotunda85 - a good lens can be very expensive and it makes sense to protect it from scratches, and falls (as I can attest from personal experience).

Cheers and good luck
 
For me, I always shoot with the lens hood as protection. This has been sufficient for me... so far... 😉
 
i used to use one, but only when i am shooting at the beach or something, but even then i am probably using a split grad anyways.

Lens are coated from the factory. And most of the time, i have some sort of filter on the lens, as most of my shooting is nature/landscape/waterfalls..
 
LittleCanonKid said:
I personally always shoot with the camera and lens in an empty, dust-less room! Works like a charm! 😀
Click to expand...

Hey... not a bad idea! You're probably getting better exposures than I am.

Seriously, though, scratches and dust are not as big a deal as people might think.

Skeptical? Check out this (posted in another thread here a little while back).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back