Using a Filter?

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm
What’s the purpose of using filters?
 

fiddle

Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2009
Messages
371
Location
NYC
Format
Multi Format
Is that one of them broken glass reflections effect filters?
Did it save the lens?
 

BrianShaw

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
16,530
Location
La-la-land
Format
Multi Format
I see what you mean. That filter won’t provide much filtration. Maybe use another filter?
 

JPD

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2007
Messages
2,155
Location
Sweden
Format
Medium Format
Lomography yellow-green effect filter.

No, like everyone else I would like to know what happened? Is the lens ok?

The yellow-green filter is one I really like for lush summer green enviroments and for outdoor portraits.
 

foc

Subscriber
Joined
Jun 30, 2010
Messages
2,519
Location
Sligo, Ireland
Format
35mm
I have always had a UV filter fitted to all my lenses (when I shot professionally) because if the lens takes an impact, the filter gets it first.
Only happened to me once and it was cheaper to replace the filter rather than a Canon L lens.

Filters can be fun in colour & black and white. I always found the circular polarizer my most used filter.
 

Billy Axeman

Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2017
Messages
523
Location
Netherlands
Format
Digital
NB23 was beaten up with his own camera by an old lady who didn't like to be photographed without permission.
 

JPD

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2007
Messages
2,155
Location
Sweden
Format
Medium Format
NB23 was beaten up with his own camera by an old lady who didn't like to be photographed without permission.

That explains it. I wondered for a moment if someone got offended by the black painted camera.

(Sorry, I couldn't miss the moment to crack a bad joke)
 

film_man

Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2009
Messages
1,575
Location
London
Format
Multi Format
I always use hoods for protection, the only exception is the Leica as the hood gets in the way of the finder which annoys me.
 

radiant

Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2019
Messages
2,135
Location
Europe
Format
Hybrid
I use my backbag for the lens protection. I just drop the camera there.

Also my brightest idea was to stack filter-plates to a plastic bag together. In a constantly rocking backbag. Maybe I should sell those to lomography.
 

pentaxuser

Member
Joined
May 9, 2005
Messages
19,956
Location
Daventry, No
Format
35mm
NB23 In the case you have shown us, is this your camera and can you confirm that in addition to the filter glass breaking the lens glass was damaged as well? This can of course happen depending on how bad the accident is but I'd have thought that intuitively at least the filter might prevent damage to the lens or has it been your experience that a filter always makes things worse for the lens?

I'd appreciate your views and experience on this. Without amplification a picture and a question tells us little. It's a bit like a picture of a car that hit a concrete bridge at 150mph and the driver was killed carrying a headline as a question that asks: What's the purpose of seatbelts and airbags. isn't it?

Thanks

pentaxuser
 

Arthurwg

Member
Joined
Dec 16, 2005
Messages
2,679
Location
Taos NM
Format
Medium Format
I do believe that a rubber lens hood can provide some additional protection to the filter/lens.
 

Luckless

Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2016
Messages
1,362
Location
Canada
Format
Multi Format
Filters: Useful for filtering light and blocking dust/spray/other low energy impacts.

Also useful for providing a source of extra grit/fragmentation for moderate to high energy impacts.
 
OP
OP

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm
I’d have much prefered a scenario where it would be a fine lady hitting me with her stiletto shoe... but no, it had to be an old lady.

Actually it was only a drop of my whole bag onto concrete. The camera was in the front pocket, lens facing front. It took the whole impact. The front element is fine!

A hood would have done a better job, but I took off the hood because the camera wouldn’t fit the pocket with the hood on. So yeah, in a sense, the hood is King because it also tells you where the camera can fit, and if it fits with it hood on, it’s probably a safer place! Lens hood = Double-whammy function.

But I also molest my equipment quite a bit. A camera that goes through my hands usually ends up very used with lots of patina, scratches...
 

pentaxuser

Member
Joined
May 9, 2005
Messages
19,956
Location
Daventry, No
Format
35mm
NB23 Haven't you answered your own question in a relatively positive way given the circumstances of the accident which you asked in post #1?

I take it that you will not abandon filters?

pentaxuser
 

BrianShaw

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
16,530
Location
La-la-land
Format
Multi Format
I took the question as rhetorical, or Socratic.
 

Huss

Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2016
Messages
9,058
Location
Hermosa Beach, CA
Format
Multi Format
The front element would not have shattered like that. You just introduced a bunch of broken glass into your bag, your lens and maybe your camera but definitely into your life.
I don't use filters. Just lens hoods if I feel like being shady.
 
OP
OP

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm
The front element would not have shattered like that. You just introduced a bunch of broken glass into your bag, your lens and maybe your camera but definitely into your life.
I don't use filters. Just lens hoods if I feel like being shady.

No, it wouldn’t have broken in this particular instance, but then again maybe it would have: the buckle inside the pocket where the camera was stored hit the filter in a quite dry manner. Thack! Without a filter, the front element would have quite a big scratch.

And how the hell do you justify a scratch on the front element of a Leica lens? If at least I was a war photographer. Or a favela-street photographer. Skid-row street photographer, ok fine. But no, in this case it was merely a bourgeois-poseur adventure.
But I concede you one thing, if it had a hood on, the filter would have been saved.
 

gdavis

Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2020
Messages
63
Location
San Diego
Format
Multi Format
If any of my lenses are in a bag, they have caps on. That's the purpose of using a cap, not a filter nor lens hood.
 

AgX

Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2007
Messages
29,973
Location
Germany
Format
Multi Format
I have always had a UV filter fitted to all my lenses (when I shot professionally) because if the lens takes an impact, the filter gets it first.

Though cases are imaginable were a smashed filter has worse effect on the lens than same hit on the plain front element.
 
OP
OP

NB23

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2009
Messages
4,307
Format
35mm
Yes you are so right


Though cases are imaginable were a smashed filter has worse effect on the lens than same hit on the plain front element.
 
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…