Best UV Filter

[jpgarnier]

Hello All

I need advice for a UV filter for my lens. What brand and type would the group recomend. There are a whole slew of different types of UV filters like, Multi coted, super coated, ultra thin and the likes.

Amy help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

JP

 

[bmac]

I use BW Multicoted UV filters on the lenses that have them (not many). Ultrathin is for wide and super wide angle lenses.

Brian

 

[Tom Duffy]

There is something of a consensus on the Leica forums that the best currently available is the B&W MRC filter. Multi-coated, easy to clean. I only own one, a 105mm YG for my 5x7 lenses, which I don't normally shoot into the sun, so I can't give you a real life comparison. All my filters for 35mm are older and I frequently have to shoot without a filter, because I know I'll get flare, otherwise.

 

[Loose Gravel]

JP

I have never used one. I suppose if you photograph in sand storms or driving rain, then protection would be nice, but I see no need to filter out UV. Sometimes color photography at high elevations renders blue sky an unusual color, which it is, and maybe then...

To me, adding a UV filter is just something in the way to degrade the image. If I were going to use one on anything but a wide angle lens, I'd buy the cheapest one I could find. The glass that your lenses are made of stops all wavelengthes shorter than 350nm.

 

[bmac]

You are suggesting buying the cheapest one he can find? That is crazy! IF you are going to put a filter in front of your lens, get the best quality you can afford. The few UV filters that I use are on lenses I use at the beach. They are just to protect my lens from the salt spray, not block any uv.

 

[jpgarnier]

Yes... it's mostly for protection, scratches and the likes + UV filtration. I just wanted to get a feel for what others are using.

I'm definately getting a filter just didn't know which one.

JP

 

[Aggie]

..

 

[bmac]

its easy enough to check for vignetting.

 

[Ed Sukach]

Strangely, the last reason I'd use a UV filter is for filtering out ultraviolet light.

They WILL, but their most important use is for lens protection. Some of the most heart-wrenching sights I have ever seen are the used top-flight Leica and Hasselblad lenses with a definite, dull center spots caused by constant knee-jerk cleaning. I do not care what method is used to clean a lens, they will all, without exception, wear on the coating, and eventually the combined effect will be image degredation ... mainly manifested by a reduction in CONTRAST - well before defintion.

I KEEP UV filters on all my lenses. I can clean those to my hearts content, and replace them if and when I've ground the centers to transluscence (hasn't happened to any of them yet). I clean the lenses themselves, on the average, about once every two years.
I have a number of UV filters, B&W, Hoya, Tiffen, Heliopan, Singh-Ray, and "unidentified from the bargain boxes". I cannot tell one whit of difference between any of them - or, for that matter, photogrpaphs taken without them.

Vignetting can only be caused by a filter too small to cover the optical field, not by some alchemic, mysterious propery of the filter itself... in the same manner as a too-long lens shade used on a wide-angle lens.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've compared all my filters side by side, and in a flare inducing situation, even a cheap multicoated filter will do better than any single-coated or uncoated filter. Resin filters, interestingly enough, seem better than single coated filters as far as flare and ghosting is concerned.

I don't use protective filters unless there is an obvious hazard, though I do use UV filters (or sometimes something stronger) with color film to filter UV.

The best filters being made today are Heliopan and B+W in their multicoated versions.

 

[docholliday]

More importantly than the glass (I love Schott glass...) is the type of ring. Tiffen and other cheap filters use aluminum and can bind to the lens (especially if your lens is the cheaper kind with plastic threads). B+W and Heliopan use brass. A lot better.

Realistically, the Heliopan MRC is the best filter. Even better, get a Heliopan AND a lens hood. A REAL lens hood, not the useless "flower petal" kind that come with lenses.

Makes one hell of a difference.

 

[steve]

I use the multi-coated B + W and Heliopan. They are both made of Schott glass. I like Heliopan's multi-coating plus the "scratch proof" coating a bit better than the B+W. The Heliopan Super High-Tech Multi Coating is a 7-layer coating on each side of the glass.

However, both filter manufacturers make fine products and you couldn't go wrong with either.