Do you filter or not?

[DebºoºS]

Please tell me if it's worth taking the chance (might get stuck) with the Hoya1B or not. I think it makes a difference.

without a filter

with a filter

I'm getting ready for my upcoming trip. As I was deciding which filters to bring I discovered that someone has been playing my filters. Some are broken!
Skylight 1A is chipped and Skylight 1B looks like it may have survived but could get stuck if it's out of round.
I had 2 polarizing filters now I think I have 1 and it's unscrewed. I'll experiment with it next.
Fortunately there's still time to get filters.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

This topic seems to be coming up a lot these days.

If I'm not mistaken, the 1A and the 1B are both UV filters. I think the 1A also adds a slight color cast.

The days of colored filters are largely over for most people. It's easier to adjust color in a photo editor than it is swapping out pieces of glass.

UV filters are the subject of considerable debate. They really aren't needed to filter UV light anymore because digital sensors aren't really affected by UV light (unlike film). The advocates for UV filters extole their value for lens protection. The detractors of UV filters disparage them for the image degredation they can cause.

As a non-UV filter person, I'll leave it up to someone else to try and sell you on their prophylactic value. The knock against them is that they add an extra piece of glass out at the front of the lens. That gives you another reflective surface that can cause flare problems. If you have light shining on your lens (including times when you take a picture that includes a bright light source), the extra glass can cause a reflection of the light to appear in your photo. I recommend protecting your lens (which isn't nearly as fragile as you probably think) with a lens hood rather than a piece of glass.

The polarizer is another subject entirely. They are very handy for cutting reflections, increasing the saturation of blue skies, and reducing glare. I recommend using a good one whenever your shoot and you have sufficient light. The downside at WDW is that you go in and out of buildings a lot, so you either need to leave it on all the time (bad for shooting indoors), leave it off all the time (not much point in bringing it), or attach and remove it a lot. Personally, I can't be bothered when I'm at WDW, so I don't use one as often as I should.

If you use a polarizer, take a few minutes to learn how to use it. You need to rotate it to the proper orientation before shooting. Some lenses make this devilishly tricky by having the front of the lens rotate when you zoom or focus.

 

[Groucho]

As a non-UV filter person, I'll leave it up to someone else to try and sell you on their prophylactic value.

Side note on polarizers... since they vary depending on their orientation on your lens, they're really only useful on lenses whose front element doesn't rotate. That cuts out the kit lenses from the "big two".

 

[fitzperry]

Side note on polarizers... since they vary depending on their orientation on your lens, they're really only useful on lenses whose front element doesn't rotate. That cuts out the kit lenses from the "big two".

I'm fairly certain that the front element doesn't rotate on my kit lens (Nikon 18-70). I don't know about the 18-55 or the 18-135, which are also packaged as "kit" lenses.

 

[DebºoºS]

Thanks for your input. Once again you all are so helpful. Very interesting. I had no idea UV filters would cause more flare. I think I'll skip them & use a hood. Better protection.thnx.

The front element doesn't rotate on my Nikkor 50 but my rubber lens hood collapses back making it a little more diffcult to rotate a polarizer. I like the effect of a polarizer so I'll bring it and see if I remember to use it.

 

[Groucho]

I'm fairly certain that the front element doesn't rotate on my kit lens (Nikon 18-70). I don't know about the 18-55 or the 18-135, which are also packaged as "kit" lenses.

The 18-55mm lens is a rotater (no real focus ring, you just rotate the whole front of the lens), this is true for Canon and Nikon as well as the Sony kit 18-70mm. The Pentax and I think the Olympus equivalents don't.

I don't know about the Nikon 18-135mm. Obviously, if you don't use the kit lens, this probably won't affect you, but I think there's still a lot of people getting a lot of use out of their kit lens. I suspect that you'll find very few lenses other than those C/N/S kits that have this issue...