UV Filters Again!!!

SimonBalaam

SimonBalaam

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Without going into the whole discussion of the benefits or the drawbacks of using a UV filter.

Does anyone have any experiance of the 7 day shop branded ones like this?

72mm UV Filter

Are they any good or just cheap pieces of glass not worth bothering about.

Cheers

Simon
 
I don't know, but I'd be very sceptical at £8.49 delivered. The description doesn't give me any confidence either.

An ultra high quality professional grade UV filter (at £8.49?) with superior multi-coating technology for enhancing your lens performance (How?) and minimising unwanted reflections (If anything, it will make them worse. UV filters aren't designed to do this.). Especially important when used with digital cameras.(Nonsense, they were designed for film and serve no purpose in this role on a digital camera) A UV filter absorbs the ultraviolet rays which can make outdoor photographs appear hazy and indistinct (on film). This filter also helps to greatly protect the front element of your lens from scratches and dust and can also help to protect the lens if dropped etc.(Maybe) Basically an essential accessory for your valuable lens !
 
Do any of you have actual experiance with one of these filters or are you just baseing it on the price of the filter then therefore it cannot be any good?
 
SimonBalaam said:
Do any of you have actual experiance with one of these filters or are you just baseing it on the price of the filter then therefore it cannot be any good?
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Mainly the price. Good filters are quite expensive, but the ridiculous and misleading description sort of puts me off too.

manualfocus-g said:
For that price is it not worth just getting one and trying it?
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How are you going to try it? The only reason to put a UV filter on a digital camera is to protect the front of the lens in harsh conditions and, according to the advertisment, if you drop it. I'm certainly not going to put one of these on any of my lenses and stand around in blowing sand/grit or drop it to see if it works.

I'll let someone else waste £8.49 and report back.
 
SimonBalaam said:
Do any of you have actual experiance with one of these filters or are you just baseing it on the price of the filter then therefore it cannot be any good?
Click to expand...

I do, from many years ago.

I had just got my DSLR and was complaining about softness with my 100-400L

Guess what the culprit was - the cheap 7 day shop 'protection' filter. It like it has exactly the same print round the sides.

Binned it, stopped using filters for protection unless I really know I might need them.
 
MartynK said:
How are you going to try it? The only reason to put a UV filter on a digital camera is to protect the front of the lens in harsh conditions and, according to the advertisment, if you drop it. I'm certainly not going to put one of these on any of my lenses and stand around in blowing sand/grit or drop it to see if it works.

I'll let someone else waste £8.49 and report back.
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I was asking the OP to try it, not you. And if it's sole us is for protection, I'd be checking that it didn't impact on performance too much. How to test that? Not difficult is it? One shot with and one without ;)
 
Not tried that one, but spent a looooong time reading up on the differences between the various UV filters a couple of days ago (trying to decide what type of filter to put on my new 15-85mm lens).

My conclusion was that the Hoya HMC UV(C) was best in terms of price/performance - was only £14.50 from Amazon. I also found a detailed comparison of 20 different UV filters on LensTip.com (look for "UV Filters test") which gave the same broad conclusion, which supported most of the other stuff i read - basically that it's worth paying the extra to get a coated filter, but beyond that the differences aren't noticeable.

I also tend to avoid the cheap unbranded ones now as i've got a couple which just aren't very well made - the threads are very rough, don't screw in easily, and wouldn't trust them not to damage the threads on my lens.

Note that the thickness also turns out to be an issue on some filters on some lenses (wide angles mostly). I went for the higher-end polarising filter just because it had a thinner frame - though probably not an issue with plain UV filters.

David
 
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