UV Filter in a very sunny environment. Any suggestions?

[KW Gary M]

I have a UV Filter on both my 18mm-55mm lens and my 55mm to 200mm as I live in Key West with some of the strongest sun in the country. Not knowing any better I bought a cheap 2 for $12 special on eBay and find it is doing more harm than good. Looking for some suggestions on a good UV Filter that won't break the bank. Some brands that have been suggested to me are Tiffin, Cokin, Hoya and Nikon. Anyone have experience with them? Good? Bad? So-So? Any others that are good? Any I should stay away from?

[Alan Gales]

The Cokin and I've heard that the Tiffen are a plastic. Hoya HMC and Nikon are both quality glass filters. B+W and Heliopan are also extremely good quality. B+W is made by Schneider and the Heliopan is made by Zeiss.

As long as you buy a quality filter I doubt you would notice much difference.

[Alan Gales]

To clarify: I don't think you would notice much difference between each of the quality filters.

[Alan Gales]

One more thing. If you are not doing it all ready, the best thing you can do is shade your lens either with a lens shade or at least a hat.

[KW Gary M]

One more thing. If you are not doing it all ready, the best thing you can do is shade your lens either with a lens shade or at least a hat.

Is that the same thing as the rubber lense hood?

[Alan Gales]

Yes, you can use a rubber lens hood, a metal lens hood or a compendium shade. A compendium shade is an adjustable lens hood for using with various focal length lenses.

[Bob Salomon]

"and the Heliopan is made by Zeiss. "

Where did you get this idea? It is totally wrong!

Heliopan is a family owned business outside Munich owned since it's founding after WWII by the Summer family. It is not and has never been part of the Zeiss Trust or any Zeiss company. Nor is it part of Rodenstock.

What it is is the only German filter manufacturer that exclusively only uses glass from Schott which is part of the Zeiss group. Heliopan also only uses brass mounts, except where their weight would be too great, for both their filter rims and their step-up rings and adapter rings.

They use the latest technology in filter coatings from the German optical industry and feature the latest technology in filters like the new High Transmissionn circular polarizers with a filter factor of 2 rather then 2.5 so they opass 2/3rd stop more light to the image plane.

[GPS]

Is that the same thing as the rubber lense hood?

No. A rubber lens hood is usually made for small of medium format cameras lenses. On LF lenses their effect is rather pitiful. No screw on lens shades (especially round ones) are made specifically for LF lenses, for many good reasons.
But a lens shade is not really a substitute for a UV filter - it doesn't reduce the UV light at all, just the general amount of light falling on the lens surface.
And I would even question the use of UV filter on your lens unless you take pics on mountains - and that regardless of the amount of sun that heats you up in Key West...

[Gem Singer]

Why hasn't anyone noticed that this nice realtor from Key West, Fla, is asking about a UV filter for the zoom lenses on his Nikon D3100 digital camera?

He is obviously posting on the wrong forum, and nobody has taken the time to explain to him that this is a forum devoted to large format photography.

In another post, he introduced himself and told us that he took a course in digital photography and is interested in learning to use his digicam.

[KW Gary M]

Why hasn't anyone noticed that this nice realtor from Key West, Fla, is asking about a UV filter for the zoom lenses on his Nikon D3100 digital camera?

He is obviously posting on the wrong forum, and nobody has taken the time to explain to him that this is a forum devoted to large format photography.

In another post, he introduced himself and told us that he took a course in digital photography and is interested in learning to use his digicam.

Now this makes sense. I found a link to this forum when looking for UV Filters. I just "Googled" UV Filter for Nikon D3100 and one of the links was this forum. I was reading a lot of the topics thinking this doesn't sound like anything I hear in class but I just figured it was me being a beginner.

Oh well, my mistake. I spent a little time in a forum that seems to be filled with nice people and I learned a few things.

Thanks,
Gary