UV Filters

When I bought my first camera the salesman suggested I buy a UV filter to protect my lens. I, like most other people thought this was a good idea. For the next few years I religiously used a UV filter on all my lenses and never took them off. Then one sunny afternoon it finally happened. I accidentally dropped my camera and it landed right on the lens. It was a sight that will bring almost any man to tears. Luckily I had my trusty UV filter on the lens which took the full force of the impact. The impact was so brutal that it bent the filter and cracked the glass. For a second I thought that I was very lucky to have the filter but it was unfortunately not enough.



Upon further inspection it was found that the aperture blades inside the lens broke as well as the zoom mechanism. I was still very happy that none of the elements inside the lens broke and had to be repaired as well. This will probably happen at least once to most people no matter how careful you are with your camera gear and having that filter might just save your lens and you some money.

If you do some research online you will find that most people actually frown upon using a UV filter. There are many reasons but the most common reason is that it degrades image quality. I have never personally seen this to be true but it does make sense to not use just any old filter you can get your hands on. Your lens is a high tech piece of equipment and that is why you want to protect it with nothing less than a high quality piece of glass in front of it. I have personally always used Hoya or Kenko filters and found them to be of great quality.

Happy shooting!