To Filter or not to Filter your Lens

[Larry Colen]

I tend to use a filter except for when I need every last bit of performance.  For the vast majority of my shots, it won't make any visible difference. I didn't have one on my 16-50, and then I noticed a small scratch on the edge of the front element.  The 80-200 came with a UV filter of the right size, so it's now on the $1500 lens rather than the$150 lens.

On Sep 17, 2012, at 9:45 PM, Bipin Gupta wrote:

> Yes this is an oft repeated old stuff. But here is a version bottled
> anew. Since my retirement I have been travelling a lot. Last weekend
> we were in San Francisco. We love the wharf area and pier 39 plus the
> rides on the historic cable cars. A very windy and chilly day. Lots
> and lots of birds flying around for scraps of food. And eat means they
> have to drop too. So bits of bird droppings broken up and propelled by
> the wind do hit your camera and the lens. I was not spared.
> Back at the hotel, I tried cleaning the filter with a blower brush and
> the Japanese high fiber lens cloth (no China stuff). Faint spots still
> remained on the Hoya 77mm Pro 1 Filter. Back home I tried a lens
> cleaner. No luck. I could still see very faint spotting on the filter.
> My daughter was quick to point out that bird droppings have strong
> chemicals that can stain a lens coating, perhaps damage it.
> I would now love to hear from our photographer friends, a) for whom a
> filter is absolutely sacrilege, b) the Buddha's middle path takers who
> say they take the filter off for important events, and c) those who
> swear by the filter.
> Bipin.
> camp: San Mateo, CA and not from the far away enchanting land.
> 
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Larry Colen lrc at red4est.com sent from i4est