Beginner Filters filters everywhere...

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Klaynos

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I general use a canon 24-105 L on a crop sensor but son I will hopefully be upgrading to a ff camera.

I'm wondering how many filters is too many until you start seeing effects on the edge if shots. I ask as I generally keep a protective filter on at all times due to paranoia about scratches. On top of this I often use a cpl for landscapes, but I may want to stop down using a couple of nd filters on top of that. That's ~4 filters.

Some things I'm aware of:
- there's no point having good glass then sticking crap in it.
- lots of extras on the front of his glass will always make it worse.
- some people think it's bad to always keep a filter on as it will degrade the light path.

But, I'm unlikely to every shot without at least one filter, a scratch on the lens would make me very sad. This is the very rare times that I want to do this (bright day where I want a long exposure of water or similar).

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I'm aware I could work it out but I'm interested in real life experience as there may be effects in not thinking of.
 
It will depend on the quality of your filters. Unless they are very high quality then you are likely to see image quality degrading.

I don't see however why you need to use a filter to protect it if you are using other filters on it? Surely they will replace the impact of the protecting filter?

Also the filter probably won't protect your lens in theory as filter glass is of less quality than glass used in lenses.

Can't you just use a lens hood for protection instead
 
How many car windscreens to you see with scratches on them? Very few indeed and they withstand stones and dust all day long at speeds far faster than your lens will ever go.

Glass is very strong.
Unless you are shooting a rally or on a windswept beach, your lens really doesn't need any protection.
 
TCR4x4 said:
How many car windscreens to you see with scratches on them? Very few indeed and they withstand stones and dust all day long at speeds far faster than your lens will ever go.

Glass is very strong.
Unless you are shooting a rally or on a windswept beach, your lens really doesn't need any protection.
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Exactly. I think a lot of people are scared by how easy it is to scratch spectacle lenses. But unless you pay a LOT of money for very high quality hardened glass lenses in your spectacles, they're crap compared to camera front optics as far as hardness is concerned. I've had some lenses for around 35 years which have migrated from film to digital which I still sometimes use. They've only ever been protected with a hood, and there's still not the slightest blemish on any of the front lenses.
 
I tend to leave a UV filter on the front of my lenses until I shoot with my Lee/Hitech filters. I'm fairly clumsy though!
 
I've always used a B&W clear filter, modern cameras don't really need a UV filter in my experience. I find that the B&W are decent quality, the other thought is, why buy an expensive lens and stick a low quality glass filter in front of it!
 
Klaynos said:
I'm wondering how many filters is too many until you start seeing effects on the edge if shots.
Click to expand...

Any filter that you don't sbsolutely need is one too many. The biggest problem that you're likely to encounter (apart from vignetting - blocked corners on wide angle shots where the filter intrudes) is flare. This will either take the obvious form of bright spots or the less obvious one of reduced contrast. It will be most evident if there is a bright light source within or just outside the picture area.

You'll get light scatter at every glass to air surface, and that scattered light has to go somewhere. The easiest place for it to go is onto your sensor.

I don't use protective filters now unless the lens design makes it almost imperative (I have one lens that I find it's almost impossible to remove the lens cap without touching the lens' front element). I'm also aware that vapours in the atmosphere at air shows leave deposits on lenses if you don't use a filter - I know one photographer (who told me this) that scraps his protective filters after each season because they're almost impossible to clean.
 
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