To wear, or not to wear protection?

Photo by Andrew Ebrahim. RIM BlackBerry 8310Probably one of the most common questions is "Do I need to put on protection?". In the bedroom, thats up to you. The folks at Sex Is Fun can answer that and much more better than I can. So, if we can for a second, get our heads out of the bedroom, lets talk photography.

When I say protection, I'm talking about the use of a skylight or UV filter to protect the front element of your lens. I along with countless others do use this filter to add a layer of protection. While these filters will filter out the UV light, most, if not all, lenses made today already have a UV coating on top of the lens to do it. What I want is an extra piece of glass in front of my front element.

However, some would argue that this lens is not needed and will only serve to degrade the quality of your photos. I hear them loud and clear, what, if any, good will a cheap $10 filter do for your $2,000 lens? Probably what all the critics are saying, degrade the quality.

If you're buying a $2,000 lens from Nikon or Canon, you're buying some of the best glass they make. So do not cheap out on the UV filter. If you can not afford something like a B+W filter, you probably should not be buying that lens in the first place. Lesson here is that the quality of light entering your lens is only as good as what it passes through. 

While a $10 store brand UV filter compared to a top of the line B+W filter, might look the same. The quality of the coatings on the filter and the quality of the construction is what makes the difference. The el cheapo filter will have a single coating, while something like a B+W will have multiple coatings that are designed to last longer. A $100 piece of insurance is a small price to pay for piece of mind.

While I'm not a pixel peeper, I believe that if you are going to buy the best lens, buy the best UV filter you can.

Why even bother using a UV filter, which is after all a clear piece of glass? When you find your self in a hospitable condition, like the beach, desert or other high dust/abrasive environments, its much cheaper to replace a $100 filter than a $2000 that you need to send away to get serviced. Personally, I leave my UV filter on at all times with a few exceptions like when I'm working indoors or when I'm using multiple flashes aimed towards the camera. UV filters can lead to unwanted flare that your lens hood was not designed to work with. 

Finally, I leave you with a personal story. I tend to have bad luck with 50mm lenses, they seem to just want to jump way from me and fly towards the ground! To date, I've manage to drop 4 different 50mm lens, all of which were saved by a UV filter! They were retired for other reasons. The filter took most of the blow, shattering on impact, but all the elements in the lens were safe and sound.

Always use protection, its better to be safe than sorry ;)

Happy shooting.