Need suggestion for a UV filter

[JaceTheAce]

Just got a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens. I need a UV filter on a strict budget. I have a Hoya on another zoom lens, but it won't fit the 67mm Tamron.

Also, what do you think of the UV/Polarizer hybrid filters that combine both filter characteristics, like this Hoya? HOYA FILTERS - The Difference is Clear

[JaceTheAce]

Oops, didn't mean to reply.

[brian.austin]

I don't do UV filters. Generally speaking, you won't need UV filtering in digital. Use a lens hood if it's a "protection" thing.

And cheaper usually means less optical quality, which is going to affect your images.

[Inked Photography]

Some lense hoods produce shadows though. Kind of a hassell to deal with.

[Ed Shapiro]

There are many schools of though regarding the use of UV filters on DSLR cameras. Supposedly there is enough UV filtration intrinsic in the sensor but I have experienced cases where a UV filter is still required.

In commercial work some fabrics contain ultra violet brighteners in the whites and in some of the dyes. There brighteners will flouress when exposed to electronic flash which has a high degree of ultra violet in its makeup. This can cause inaccurate color rendition. Some wedding dresses will show up as cyan or blue, especially in the shadows. The UV filter will eliminate this problem.

Ostensibly, as the scientists tell us, we bad environmentally unfriendly earthlings have blown a hole in our ozone layer- this lets more UV from the sun, enter our atmosphere. True or false- I have noticed more fading in my display prints in the front window than I have experienced years gone by. On certain days, I do find that some of my digital images, made out of doors, have a little more coldness than I like- again the UV filter helps. It has a cleaner effect than using the white balance to correct this problem.

There is also the issue of protecting the lens when we are working in outdoor locations or when the lenses are placed in our camera bags without lens caps. I would rather scratch a filter rather than the front element of a costly lens- the UV filter makes a great transparent and optically correct lens cap.

Hoya filters are top quality! They manufacture filters for many of the camera makers in Japan. A rule of thumb is never to use a low grade filter on your lenses. It is ludicrous to spend your hard earned money on a high quality lens and then degrade its performance with an inferior filter.

The hybrid types are a good idea- nice engineering! The more optical surfaces, the grater the likelihood of image degradation or distortion. If you need a polarizer to darken the sky or see through reflections + a UV or other correction filter you only have to worry about 2 more surfaces instead of 4 or 6.

Lens hood have little to do with filters except that the can be used in conjunction with filters and act as a retaining rings or filter holder when filters are used. "Shadows" cause by filters or lens hoods are not really shadows. If your lens accessories or attachments cut into you images at the edges, that is called vignetting. It means that you filters and/or your lens hood is not properly fitted to the lens you are using. This effect is especially problematic when wide angle lenses or zoom setting are used. The problem is that the lens attachments are too small or not wide enough and they get into the picture area. The problem may not be apparent when focusing and composing on your viewfinder or on on the screen at back of your DSLR. That is because the lens is at full aperture when focusing and the vignetting may not set in until the lens is stopped down when the exposure is made. Usually camera and lens manufacturers have specifications or specific lens attachments which are properly designed for use with their optical gear. If you are not sure, check out your viewfinder, screen, or you computer screen before finalizing the purchase of a filter or lens shade or hood.

I hope this helps. Ed

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Inked Photography

Some lense hoods produce shadows though. Kind of a hassell to deal with.

I shoot with lens hoods all the time, even in the studio where I'm controlling everything. The only time I've seen "shadows" is when using a Canon 10-22 and my pop-up flash on the 20D. The hood caught part of the flash.

That same lens/hood combination will show the edges of the hood at 10mm but the distortion is so bad, I'm rarely there.

If you're using the wrong size hood, then, yeah, you'll see it in the images.

[brian.austin]

Originally Posted by Ed Shapiro

There are many schools of though regarding the use of UV filters on DSLR cameras. Supposedly there is enough UV filtration intrinsic in the sensor but I have experienced cases where a UV filter is still required.

In commercial work some fabrics contain ultra violet brighteners in the whites and in some of the dyes. There brighteners will flouress when exposed to electronic flash which has a high degree of ultra violet in its makeup. This can cause inaccurate color rendition. Some wedding dresses will show up as cyan or blue, especially in the shadows. The UV filter will eliminate this problem.

So will color temperature correction, since that's all UV shifts anyway.

Ostensibly, as the scientists tell us, we bad environmentally unfriendly earthlings have blown a hole in our ozone layer- this lets more UV from the sun, enter our atmosphere. True or false- I have noticed more fading in my display prints in the front window than I have experienced years gone by. On certain days, I do find that some of my digital images, made out of doors, have a little more coldness than I like- again the UV filter helps. It has a cleaner effect than using the white balance to correct this problem.

I'm not sure what "cleaner effect" means here but I haven't seen issues there.

There is also the issue of protecting the lens when we are working in outdoor locations or when the lenses are placed in our camera bags without lens caps. I would rather scratch a filter rather than the front element of a costly lens- the UV filter makes a great transparent and optically correct lens cap.

"Optically correct" and "cheap" aren't usually synonymous.

[Ed Shapiro]

As far as I understand UV filters do not alter the color temperature- the just filter out excessive UV, Using a Color correction filter or adjusting the white balance will bias the entire image (usually toward the red or yellow/red side of the spectrum) whereas the use of a UV filter will clean up excessive blue or cyan shifts in the aforementioned fabrics. In a bridal portrait, if this problem occurs, you might end up with a very red skin tone in order to compensate for all that cyan/blue in the shadows. When a UV filter is used the skin tome can be maintained- therefore the term "cleaner" rendition.

I NEVER indicated that one should use a "cheap filter" in fact I advised against that. Perhaps you misunderstood me. It is "cheaper" to invest in a GOOD filter than to go to the expense of re-coating a scratched lens or absorbing the loss of value if one wishes to resell or trade in a damaged lens.

Another good maker of filters is Sing-Ray. I don't have all the specs in front of me but I can look them up in my files. One can see from studying the optical specifications how a GOOD UV filter will absorb excessive UV without distorting the color balance of the all over image.

I do not run into theses issues every day but every now and again excessive UV rears its ugly head especially if I am behind in meeting a deadline. Another remedy for this is to place sheets UV absorbent Plexiglas over the electronic flash light sources- this material is available through agricultural supply houses. This however, can become cumbersome and expensive if many lamp heads are used in a certain setup. I usually find that one of my collection of UV filters will fix the problem- a UV-16 is one of my favorites.

Oh- just about any glass absorbs some UV- that's why you can't get a decent tan by sitting in front of a sun-lighted window.

Hmmmm- perhaps I should smear some sun-screen on my lenses

Kindest regards, Ed

[Ed Shapiro]

Hi again! Here's more on UV- This is from Sing-Ray. According to their specs the filter in question DOES have a warming effect of an 81A filter but I don't find, in actual use, that it distorts the balance in the skin tones. My H&H UV filters have no warming effect except to eliminate the bluish cast in the shadows- especially in wedding dresses or seamless background paper (SUPER WHITE) which has kind of an intrinsic blue tone.

Ed



Here's the specs-
Singh-Ray's unique formula for the new Hi-Lux filter combines protection for your front lens element along with a slight warming effect plus special characteristics to assure the best possible color quality, contrast and edge separation under various lighting conditions

Hi-Lux™ Filter affords full-time lens protection plus enhanced optical performance Designed to maintain peak acuity and chromatic clarity for both film and digital images.

Improves flesh tones --particularly when using electronic fill flash.

Assures the best possible color quality, contrast, and edge separation under various lighting conditions.

Warming effect is slightly less than that of an 81-A filter.

Available in standard filter-ring sizes from 52 to 77mm, and to fit the Cokin "P" and Lee Size filter holders.

Non-standard filter sizes available upon request.

Click for size and price 52mm Ring Mount -$160 58mm Ring Mount -$160 62mm Ring Mount -$160 67mm Ring Mount -$160 72mm Ring Mount -$160 77mm Ring Mount -$160 82mm Ring Mount -$210 72mm for Wide Angle -$190 77mm for Wide Angle -$190 82mm for Wide Angle -$240 for Cokin P Holder -$160 © Photo by Jon Sheppard with Singh-Ray Hi-Lux Filter on 35-mm color slide film

Click to see a larger image."I find the Hi-Lux filter to be very subtle yet impressive," says western landscape photographer Jon Sheppard. "Much of my scenic shooting is done at elevations above 5,000 feet, where the soft warming effect of the Hi-Lux helps offset the coolness of the light. It also makes a nice difference in open shade and flash-fill portraits. I've decided to use the Hi-Lux for all my work."

If you use a plain glass UV filter on your lens to protect its front element from scratches, here's good news. The new Hi-Lux Filter from Singh-Ray will not only serve the same protective purpose but it will also provide superior optical performance.

Singh-Ray's unique filtration formula for the new Hi-Lux filter combines front lens element protection along with a slight warming effect--to enhance flesh tones--plus certain special characteristics that assure the best possible color quality, contrast and edge separation under various lighting conditions--outdoors, indoors, and flash. The filter's warming effect is slightly less than that of an 81-A filter.

The visible effects of the Hi-Lux are quite subtle but important for critical work. Improvements are quite often seen in flesh tones--particularly when using electronic fill flash. The Hi-Lux is specifically designed to maintain peak acuity and chromatic clarity for both film and digital images.

Singh-Ray offers the Hi-Lux filter in standard filter-ring sizes from 52 to 77mm. It's also available in sizes to fit the Cokin "P" and Lee filter holders. Each Singh-Ray Hi-Lux Filter is shipped in a protective leather filter case with an optical-cloth liner.

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[mujana]

I use B&W 010 UV - Haze 1x MRC F-Pro filters.
Any comment on these?

[Ed Shapiro]

mugana- Hi!

The B+W filter line made my Schneider Optical are probably some of the world's finest photographic lens accessories. I have one of them -the 010 UV. This filter is colorless and blocks quite a bit of unwanted UV radiation. I have this filter attached to my 500mm Apo Tele Tessar fir the Hasselblad MF camera. This is what the manufacture says about this filter:

This UV Filter blocks the invisible UV component of light from the sky, which can cause blur and to which many color films react with a blue cast. These filters should be called UV-Blocking Filters, because there are filters for technical applications that pass UV radiation and block all the other wavelengths. Nevertheless, the short term “UV Filter” has become established among photographers. UV Filters are ideal for photography in high altitudes (in the mountains), by the sea and in regions with very clean air. The pictures gain brilliance and disturbing blue casts are avoided. Because the glass is colorless, color rendition is not altered, aside from the elimination of the unwanted blue cast, and no increase in exposure is required. That makes a UV Filter very suitable as protection of the front element of the taking lens against dust, flying sand, sea water spray and the like, and it can be kept on the lens at all times. It is recommended for analog color and black-and-white as well as digital photography.
__________________________________________________ ______

Boy- is that thing expensive- I think it was 300 bucks for the size I needed- but it works extremely well. The other filter you mention- I have no experience with this product- If it comes from B+W you can be sure that it is optically correct and does the job it is intended for.

Ed

[nolly]

I personally don't use UV filters on my lenses either. They can cause a bit of distortion, more so with wide angle lenses, because they (or any filter for that matter) refract light just before it hits the front lens element. They change the angle that the light enters the lens from what the manufacturer designed for. They only time I consider using a UV filter is when I'm near water or really close to kids/dogs.

[Ed Shapiro]

Hi Nolly-

In theory any air to glass surface that you stick inf front of a lens can cause some image degrading. In practice, I have never experienced theses problems with high quality optical glass filters on critical work. I have made architectural photographs on an 8x10 view camera that were enlarged to mural size and there were no detectable signs of refraction of any description. The same goes for high quality polorizers.

A properly coated filter should not create internal reflections and a well designed compendium lens shade should kill any potential flare.

Many wide angle lenses require center-spot ND filters to insure even exposure when working out of doors or with continuous light sources in the studio. Theses lenses in relatively big shutters need those filters to compensate for shutter travel. Again- I have never experienced degrading of my images with theses lens and filter combinations.

Refraction sometimes sets in with older view camera lenses when the are used at very small apertures- theses lenses preform best around 2 stops above maximum aperture.

Granted- certain phenomena such as the filter problems you have alluded can become apparent under optical bench testing conditions, however, I go by practical results. I have made many filtered images that end up on the side of buildings and grace the outer walls of transport trucks- no refraction no distortion- tack sharp.

Ed