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Shopping for a UV Filter

By | August 14, 2009, 6:00am PDT

Summary: Recently I started a search to find a UV filter for my Canon 1000D. After doing a bit of searching on Amazon.com and not really finding anything that interested me, I asked a friend who knows much more about lenses than I do for his expert opinion. He suggested a few higher-end options, including the [...]

Recently I started a search to find a UV filter for my Canon 1000D. After doing a bit of searching on Amazon.com and not really finding anything that interested me, I asked a friend who knows much more about lenses than I do for his expert opinion. He suggested a few higher-end options, including the B+W Haze #010 (2c) and MRC Glass Filter. The former is his favorite, even affirming it as “the best and slimmest coated filter out there,” noting that when bought it and opened the box, he thought all they provided was the metal ring, as the glass was almost completely transparent. While I completely value his opinion and these are a pair of quality products, these filters come with hefty price tags hovering around $100.

Thus my search continued a bit more, and I walked into my local Wolf Camera for second opinion.

Find out what I got after the jump…

While in-store options are obviously more limited than shopping the Internet, there were a few different options for my budget (under $50) and that will get the job done. I ended up settling on the Tristar Optics 58 MM UV Filter & Circular Polarizer Filter package. Two filters-in-one and a handy carrying pouch (which I really liked since I travel often), I thought it was a good deal as I’m just looking for a basic filter that will absorb UV rays and protect the lens. Eventually I will open my wallet to a higher-end filter, especially when I get a higher-end camera.

What kind of UV filter do you have on your camera? If you don’t have one, what are you looking for in a filter?

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Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

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Rachel King

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Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

Rachel started playing with her mother's old Brownie camera when she was just a toddler, working her way up from a Hello Kitty point-and-shoot to training on both film and digital SLRs.

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I second the lens hood plan
geoffrey.langlois@... 24th Aug 2009
but I generally put a UV on anyway. Partly because it makes me feel better and partly because outdoors it helps somewhat with haze.

A skinny UV will be rather expensive and you can often fix vignetting, if it's really bothering you, via standard software.

Although the filter will block a bit of light, even a 5% loss is only 1/10 stop. No big deal for anyone who has to ask the question.

The scariest are the ultra-wides and fisheyes. They need the protection the most because of the exposure of the front element but they're the most prone to vignetting and cannot, of course, have much extension on the lens hood.
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0 Votes
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Are UV rays cast unfocused onto a CCD?
Feldwebel Wolfenstool 14th Aug 2009
Is a CCD even sensitive to UV? IR, yes.
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Really necessary?
CobraA1 14th Aug 2009
Are they really necessary? Is UV really damaging to a CCD?

I've heard a lot of hearsay about this, but have seen very little otherwise. Do we have any credible (preferably scientific) sources saying this?
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UV filter isn't to protect sensor. ..
ajlcary 17th Aug 2009
Purpose of the UV filter is not to protect the sensor. Typically a UV filter (or a skylight, haze, optically clear, etc) is used to provide protection to a more expensive lens should that lens be banged or hit or (gasp) dropped. A $50 filter is used to protect a $500 lens.

The UV filter and Skylight filters cut the blue end light coming into the camera. This helps remove the UV scatter from haze and water vapor and provides clearer images...






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Watch for blocking/vignetting at the corners
bhaydama 14th Aug 2009
While I can't address the debate over UV, wanting to put some protection on the front of your lens is a good idea and I'm not aware if anyone sells clear glass filters. That said UV, Haze or whatever are probably fine. The thing to watch out for is the wide angle. I have a rather cheap UV on my Nikon D70s (18-70 lens) and the filter causes vignetting (blocking, really but it appears as blurry vignetting) at the wide end ~18-20mm. I find this frustrating since I like to use the wide angle a lot more than zooming. As a result I have found myself using the lens more and more without the filter. Same problem goes for the polarizing filter. I've learned that blocking a quality lens with a cheap filter was/is a bad idea.
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SOL
odcchaz 14th Aug 2009
Chances are you're gonna get that vignetting with
almost any filter you put on there. Polarizers are
the most obvious culprits since the rings are
wider than a plain glass filter. If you're just
looking to protect the lens, I suggest a lens
hood, which protect it from most everything short
of a direct poke into the glass. And they're
designed for your lens so there's no vignetting.
0 Votes
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I second the lens hood plan
geoffrey.langlois@... 24th Aug 2009
but I generally put a UV on anyway. Partly because it makes me feel better and partly because outdoors it helps somewhat with haze.

A skinny UV will be rather expensive and you can often fix vignetting, if it's really bothering you, via standard software.

Although the filter will block a bit of light, even a 5% loss is only 1/10 stop. No big deal for anyone who has to ask the question.

The scariest are the ultra-wides and fisheyes. They need the protection the most because of the exposure of the front element but they're the most prone to vignetting and cannot, of course, have much extension on the lens hood.
0 Votes
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clear glass filters are available --
ajlcary 17th Aug 2009
look under optically clear. I checked a number of online stores (Ador*, BH*, and Amaz*) and all had them..... I do not work for nor endorse any of these stores... Just search for 'protective filter' in your web search engine of choice.

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