It's normal installing a UV filter on 35mm lenses. The filter also servers as the protector. How about your LF lenses? Do you install a UV filter or protector?
It's normal installing a UV filter on 35mm lenses. The filter also servers as the protector. How about your LF lenses? Do you install a UV filter or protector?
I use the UV filters on all of my lenses. I would rather carry a slight amount of more weight and be safe than sorry. It is much less expensive to protect the lens elements and to replace a filter (and require less cleaning to protect the lens multicoating) than to have to replace an expensive lens. I have never really made a comparison in the lens performance with and without the UV filter, but I have never noted a loss in sharpness.
I try to get the best UV filters that I can, however. All of my most current purchases of UV filters for my lenses have been either the Heliopan SH-PMC (Super Multicoat) or B + W Multicoated filters. The new Heliopan SH-PMC filters are the nicest filters that I have ever used, but they are a bit more expensive than the B + W Multicoated. All of my older UV filters are either Heliopan or B + W.
Rich
I only use UV filters when I want to filter UV with color film (with B&W, I'm more likely to use a yellow or orange filter), or when there is an obvious hazard like crowds, sea spray, or blowing sand.
No.
I don't use UV filters on my 35mm lenses either, come to think of it. I do have UV filters on my MF lenses, though - I put them on before a trip to Sahara, and haven't removed them since. So if I were taking my LF lenses to Sahara I might put UV filters on them, I guess.
I don't think it's very common to use UV filters as protection for LF lenses.
First, many of us go to rather extraordinary lengths to protect our lenses during transport--I use individual tupperware containers packed with darkcloths and shading materials. Second, many common lenses that have filter threads do not permit you to screw down a filter all the way without touching the front element. Third, flare and light scatter are bigger issues because of the large image circles of some objectives, and filters make matters worse. Fourth, LF lenses are often vignetted by filters, and you don't want to pay for image circle that you won't ever see because of a filter. Fifth, some lenses commonly used in formats beyond 4x5 have no filter threads. Sixth, I can't imagine buying 3 or 4 UV filters in 77mm and above--and I shudder to imagine shelling out for a protective optical flat in 135mm should my 210 SA ever come.
I rarely use an UV filter on 35mm gear, and never on LF. Metal lenscaps provide better protection between shots. The right lenshood provides good protection at other times. UV or clear filters are useful in blowing rain or sand and in other severe environments. Lenses on 35mm cameras are at greater risk of damage than on LF because of the way the cameras are handled and used.
No, not on my LF gear, nor on my MF gear. My DSLR and SLR 35-mm lens have them mostly for protection in the rough and tumble world of photo-journalism. That said, I don't have them on my Leica gear.
Walter,
I even have UV filters on all of my Leica R lenses except my 60mm f2.8 Macro Elmarit (very recessed front element), 100mm f4.0 Macro Bellows (front hood and very recessed front element), f6.8 560mm Telyt (no filter threads), and my f2.5 25mm Photar. But again, the UV filters are Heliopan, B + W, or Leica.
Rich
I've never used a UV filter in any kind of photography unless I needed the optical effect. For medium format, 35 mm and my D70, I use a lens shade to avoid accidentally striking the front element, and I'm very careful about blowing debris off it.
It is important to remember that the front element is only one of many surfaces which contribute to the optical behavior of the lens, so one shouldn't obsess about it. Scratches or worse will usually have only very minor effects on lens performance, mostly a slight increase in flare. In specially dusty situations there may be added concern, but for many lenses, particularly large format lenses, which are not completely closed to the outside air, there should be as much concern about what collects on the inside of the lens as about what you see on the front element. In such circumstances, you should do what you can to protect the entire lens.
No, not on any lens--35, MF, LF. Why put an inferior (to the prime lens) piece of glass in front of your lens if you don't need to. Just be careful with your lenses.
Keith Pitman
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