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#1
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Thoughts on "Multicoated" lens filters
i did a ton of travelling earlier this year and got my camera lenses
quite dirty at times. (did my best to keep them clean but i was in crazy places...) i wiped them gently with anti-static cloths but i didn't feel good about it. should i buy "Multicoated" lens covers (i believe a.k.a. Neutral Density Glass Filters)? has anyone used them? i own the Canon 30D, and so far all Canon lenses. thanks, dave |
#2
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Thoughts on "Multicoated" lens filters
Dave wrote:
i did a ton of travelling earlier this year and got my camera lenses quite dirty at times. (did my best to keep them clean but i was in crazy places...) i wiped them gently with anti-static cloths but i didn't feel good about it. should i buy "Multicoated" lens covers (i believe a.k.a. Neutral Density Glass Filters)? has anyone used them? i own the Canon 30D, and so far all Canon lenses. thanks, dave There's always arguments about filters. I tended to dismiss the significance of image degradation from filters as exaggeration. But I've got a couple of 77mm UV filters, one a Hoya Multicoated one, the other an uncoated Kenco (supposed to be Hoya Glass?). On a wide angle lens, I can't normally see any image quality difference between the filters. If flare/ghosting is a problem with the uncoated one, it's only reduced by using the multicoated one - not eliminated, in which case results are much better with no filter at all. At 200mm f2.8, I thought that my lens was faulty, as images were significantly blurred. I was very surprised to see that when I changed to using the MC filter, image quality was much better. It seems to me that filter quality is much more critical as focal length increases. I will buy only multicoated filters in future. But, as they are expensive, I'm less inclined to want to clean them when working in dusty/dirty/wet environments with the corner of a shirt or whatever happens to be handy. For now, I leave the uncoated filter on my wide angle lens, but remove it when ghosting is a potential problem. Because the wide angle lens front element and filter is so exposed, it gets dirty very quickly in outdoor environments, and using just a lens cap and no filter would be very inconvenient having to remove and replace it between shots. YMMV |
#3
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Thoughts on "Multicoated" lens filters
On Aug 8, 8:32 pm, Dave wrote:
i did a ton of travelling earlier this year and got my camera lenses quite dirty at times. (did my best to keep them clean but i was in crazy places...) i wiped them gently with anti-static cloths but i didn't feel good about it. should i buy "Multicoated" lens covers (i believe a.k.a. Neutral Density Glass Filters)? has anyone used them? i own the Canon 30D, and so far all Canon lenses. thanks, dave Gee, I didn't think they make a truly uncoated filter anymore. But anyway, if they do, don't buy it. When light crosses an angle, it splits like a prism. So as the ligh passes through the lens elements, it creates little prisms as it goes. That's why the image quality is bad. The purpose of the coatings are to keep all of the separate colors of light reflecting evenly and thus enhancing the image quality. Back in the day, Isaac Newton realized the problem but didn't discover coatings, so instead he solved the problem by inventing the mirror lens. The reflections didn't degrade. |
#4
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Thoughts on "Multicoated" lens filters
In article . com,
Dave wrote: should i buy "Multicoated" lens covers (i believe a.k.a. Neutral Density Glass Filters)? has anyone used them? Not quite. neutral density filters are gray, not clear. A MC Protection filter should be clear glass with no hint of a yellow, salmon, gray or any other color or tone. An example of one is the Heliopan SH-PMC Protection filter. UV, Skylight, Haze and ND filters are not clear glass protection filters. Although they can all be used as one. -- To reply no_ HPMarketing Corp. |
#5
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Thoughts on "Multicoated" lens filters
Dave wrote:
i did a ton of travelling earlier this year and got my camera lenses quite dirty at times. (did my best to keep them clean but i was in crazy places...) i wiped them gently with anti-static cloths but i didn't feel good about it. Best to avoid contact with anything (dust) on the surface. Gently remove that with a blower and if required a fine, gentle brush. Once removed, then a microfibre cloth can be used to remove spots (skin oil, moisture residue). And finally, Kodak lens cleaner (tiny amounts) to get rid of any remaining residue. should i buy "Multicoated" lens covers (i believe a.k.a. Neutral Density Glass Filters)? has anyone used them? ND is to reduce light allowing larger apertures at a given speed (or slower speeds at a given aperture. (constant ISO of course). For most digital cameras a "Neutral Color" filter can be used for protection. I recently bought a Nikon NC (multicoated) for this purpose (I don't use "protection" filters unless needed, and for a 77mm lens with the front element really exposed it was needed). Cheers, Alan -- -- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm -- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm -- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin -- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch. |
#6
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Thoughts on "Multicoated" lens filters
On Aug 8, 8:32 pm, Dave wrote:
i did a ton of travelling earlier this year and got my camera lenses quite dirty at times. (did my best to keep them clean but i was in crazy places...) i wiped them gently with anti-static cloths but i didn't feel good about it. should i buy "Multicoated" lens covers (i believe a.k.a. Neutral Density Glass Filters)? has anyone used them? i own the Canon 30D, and so far all Canon lenses. thanks, dave Camera owners are often clueless about how to treat lenses or filters. "Cleaning cloths" should never be used. Cleaning tissues used once. Never use circular strokes as this can drag abraisive dirt around. The process should be: Blow with air, lens brush, then clean with a NON-dry tissue. Always use lens cleaner. If you don't care about the coatings on the filters, do what you like. As for filter use, multicoated, single-coated or not coated, it doesn't matter. Point into any light sources and you will likely get flare. Other times filters (clean ones, untinted) should present no problem unless they are really crappy. If you look through a filter and tilt it back and forth and the image moves or distorts, throw the filter out. |
#7
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Thoughts on "Multicoated" lens filters
"frederick" wrote in message news:1186622322.925846@ftpsrv1... Dave wrote: i did a ton of travelling earlier this year and got my camera lenses quite dirty at times. (did my best to keep them clean but i was in crazy places...) i wiped them gently with anti-static cloths but i didn't feel good about it. should i buy "Multicoated" lens covers (i believe a.k.a. Neutral Density Glass Filters)? has anyone used them? i own the Canon 30D, and so far all Canon lenses. thanks, dave There's always arguments about filters. I tended to dismiss the significance of image degradation from filters as exaggeration. But I've got a couple of 77mm UV filters, one a Hoya Multicoated one, the other an uncoated Kenco (supposed to be Hoya Glass?). On a wide angle lens, I can't normally see any image quality difference between the filters. If flare/ghosting is a problem with the uncoated one, it's only reduced by using the multicoated one - not eliminated, in which case results are much better with no filter at all. At 200mm f2.8, I thought that my lens was faulty, as images were significantly blurred. I was very surprised to see that when I changed to using the MC filter, image quality was much better. It seems to me that filter quality is much more critical as focal length increases. I will buy only multicoated filters in future. But, as they are expensive, I'm less inclined to want to clean them when working in dusty/dirty/wet environments with the corner of a shirt or whatever happens to be handy. For now, I leave the uncoated filter on my wide angle lens, but remove it when ghosting is a potential problem. Because the wide angle lens front element and filter is so exposed, it gets dirty very quickly in outdoor environments, and using just a lens cap and no filter would be very inconvenient having to remove and replace it between shots. YMMV It is absolutely true that as focal length increases filter quality becomes more important. You can convince yourself of this by shooting first through window glass and then in the open with a wide angle and then tele lens, blowing up to 100% and comparing the results. That being said, I recently did a series of tests with a normal MC lens protector on a 17-70 zoom at 70 and compared pix with the filter on and off. If there was a slight degradation it was almost invisible, and the slightest focusing error masked it. While a few small scratches on the front element of a lens are not really critical, I personally keep filters on all my lenses, and no one has ever complained about sharpness. Toby |
#8
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Thoughts on "Multicoated" lens filters
Toby wrote:
"frederick" wrote in message news:1186622322.925846@ftpsrv1... Dave wrote: i did a ton of travelling earlier this year and got my camera lenses quite dirty at times. (did my best to keep them clean but i was in crazy places...) i wiped them gently with anti-static cloths but i didn't feel good about it. should i buy "Multicoated" lens covers (i believe a.k.a. Neutral Density Glass Filters)? has anyone used them? i own the Canon 30D, and so far all Canon lenses. thanks, dave There's always arguments about filters. I tended to dismiss the significance of image degradation from filters as exaggeration. But I've got a couple of 77mm UV filters, one a Hoya Multicoated one, the other an uncoated Kenco (supposed to be Hoya Glass?). On a wide angle lens, I can't normally see any image quality difference between the filters. If flare/ghosting is a problem with the uncoated one, it's only reduced by using the multicoated one - not eliminated, in which case results are much better with no filter at all. At 200mm f2.8, I thought that my lens was faulty, as images were significantly blurred. I was very surprised to see that when I changed to using the MC filter, image quality was much better. It seems to me that filter quality is much more critical as focal length increases. I will buy only multicoated filters in future. But, as they are expensive, I'm less inclined to want to clean them when working in dusty/dirty/wet environments with the corner of a shirt or whatever happens to be handy. For now, I leave the uncoated filter on my wide angle lens, but remove it when ghosting is a potential problem. Because the wide angle lens front element and filter is so exposed, it gets dirty very quickly in outdoor environments, and using just a lens cap and no filter would be very inconvenient having to remove and replace it between shots. YMMV It is absolutely true that as focal length increases filter quality becomes more important. You can convince yourself of this by shooting first through window glass and then in the open with a wide angle and then tele lens, blowing up to 100% and comparing the results. That being said, I recently did a series of tests with a normal MC lens protector on a 17-70 zoom at 70 and compared pix with the filter on and off. If there was a slight degradation it was almost invisible, and the slightest focusing error masked it. While a few small scratches on the front element of a lens are not really critical, I personally keep filters on all my lenses, and no one has ever complained about sharpness. Toby It seemed to also be affected by aperture. At f8 or so the shots at 200mm looked okay, but at F2.8 they were very bad. I agree that a few minor scratches are often not critical - except when it comes to selling the lens. But OTOH, using extreme wide angle (10mm) with filter, small aperture for maximim DOF, and focusing on an object only a meter or so away, then small smudges on a filter do become visible. |
#9
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Thoughts on "Multicoated" lens filters
Alan Browne wrote:
Dave wrote: i did a ton of travelling earlier this year and got my camera lenses quite dirty at times. (did my best to keep them clean but i was in crazy places...) i wiped them gently with anti-static cloths but i didn't feel good about it. Best to avoid contact with anything (dust) on the surface. Gently remove that with a blower and if required a fine, gentle brush. Once removed, then a microfibre cloth can be used to remove spots (skin oil, moisture residue). And finally, Kodak lens cleaner (tiny amounts) to get rid of any remaining residue. should i buy "Multicoated" lens covers (i believe a.k.a. Neutral Density Glass Filters)? has anyone used them? ND is to reduce light allowing larger apertures at a given speed (or slower speeds at a given aperture. (constant ISO of course). For most digital cameras a "Neutral Color" filter can be used for protection. I recently bought a Nikon NC (multicoated) for this purpose (I don't use "protection" filters unless needed, and for a 77mm lens with the front element really exposed it was needed). I purchased an old 300mm f/2.8 with a flawless front element (looks beautiful). The seller had gone out & bought a new NC filter for selling it because his old one was trashed and that's how he worked, he assumed the buyer would want one. So I use it because it seems so exposed & hard to protect without the monsterous lens shade attached... though I wonder if it effects image quality. That's the only lens I use one on. I got another for my 45/2.8 because it was part of the factory package but that has a lens shade I leave on which protects the front just fine so I took the NC filter off. If anyone wants a Nikon 52mm NC filter, I got one for ya. -- Paul Furman Photography http://edgehill.net Bay Natives Nursery http://www.baynatives.com |
#10
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Thoughts on "Multicoated" lens filters
Paul Furman wrote:
I purchased an old 300mm f/2.8 with a flawless front element (looks beautiful). The seller had gone out & bought a new NC filter for selling it because his old one was trashed and that's how he worked, he assumed the buyer would want one. So I use it because it seems so exposed & hard to protect without the monsterous lens shade attached... though I wonder if it effects image quality. No-one has ever produced comparison shots that showed any deterioration in image quality when using a good quality filter. So don't worry. I have done my own careful comparisons with modern lenses and found no discernible difference. What I have seen is comparisons where older lenses (with poor coatings by modern standards) were used with uncoated filters. The flare was certainly significant. Moral of the story: If you want to protect your investment in quality modern lenses without having any discernible effect on your images, always fit a top quality multicoated UV filter. From a practical point of view, avoid Hoya HMC multicoated filters because they are extremely difficult to keep clean. I strongly recommend B+W, Heliopan and Nikon brand filters. They can all be found discounted on eBay. |
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