Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/11/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On 11/11/04 9:49 AM, "Luis Ripoll (Of)" <luisripoll@telefonica.net> typed: > > > Hello all, > > All my life I've used a UV filter as a protection for the lenses, and > always I've asked me three questions: > > 1.- Could the UV filter affect the image quality? > 2.- In a nice glass as Leica, it should be used only Leitz filters? > What's affect use i.e. B&W, Hoya...? > 3.- It could be the same quality a Leitz UV from the 60's than our days? > > Thanks for the opinions > Luis > Luis! Grab your tripod, UV filter, lens hood and your camera, lens and a fresh roll of flim. Go out and set up different shots shooting a roll. (of 36 hopefully) Take each one with and without a UV filter, high end or cheap. Then you'll know. >From my tests and experiences you'll see a difference and not for the better of a huge percentage of your shots. You have no idea how amazed you're going to be. Not so much in your front lit shots but its surprising in just how many situations a UV filter will degrade your blacks and even create an over all veiling in comparison to the UV filter less shot. But you need that comparison as a reference to really know for sure as in anything otherwise it's only the mood you were in when you woke up that morning your are testing. The only Pro photographer I've ever been able to make out who used UV filters as a matter of course was Eliot Erwitt. And with his cinematography background he should have known better as cinematographers are even more adverse to using these useless little buggers than still photographers are. You think HCB used a UV filter? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Who's your favorite photographer? Find a shot of them shooting. See a UV filter on the lens? It makes you look like an amateur (dilettante) just like using a cheap short plastic tripod. By the way if you shot with and did a test of a UV filter WITHOUT A LENS HOOD, the most deadly of all combinations.... Then you'll REALLY SEE A DIFFERENCE in the vast majority of your shots on your test roll or any roll. Well documented in the archives. As is the acrimony which results in bringing camera auction stuff to the LUG - hence various rules. Sorry but I'm just waiting for the third shoe to drop. Some threads orbit like comets. They may be gone for a while but they always come back. I don't know a photographer whose ever scratched a front element from not using a UV filter. I'm a real klutz and I sure haven't in 30 some odd years of throwing stuff in camera bags. Mark Rabiner Photography Portland Oregon http://rabinergroup.com/