Flare

[scottduffy]

When you are facing the sun at say sunset and you point your camera in the direction of the sun will you always get flare? I have never experienced flare with my 70-200 F4L before but i experienced it big time on Monday night when trying to take a few landscape shots facing the sun.

 

[SparkUK]

I've just sorted a flare problem by getting rid of what turns out to be a fake Hoya filter.

 

[Andrew Evans]

just make sure the lens glass is shaded from of the sun, you will get no flare then. saying that, a lot of the time i deliberately try to get some flare, i think it can give some photos a lot more impact and add some interestingness.

 

[scottduffy]

I'm not sure how i could shade it when it's facing the sun. I had the lens hood on it and as i said it was facing into a very bright sun. I will have a read online about flare and sunsets and see what i can do to improve it. Cheers guys.

 

[Nod]

Spotlessly clean front and rear elements should help, as will removing any filters you may have fitted.

Hiding the disk of the sun behind a branch or similar may help but will also reduce the impact of the sunset.

 

[Denyerec]

It varies from lens to lens too, lenses "optimised for digital" exhibit less on digital cameras, due to having anti-reflective coatings on their rear elements that old film lenses didn't need (Film being less reflective than glass sensors).
My Nikon 12-24 hardly flares at all, but the Nikon 35-70 loses almost all its contrast the moment a lightsource is anywhere near the frame.