Filters (which and when?)

[jdgibney]

Just wondering what filters you awesome landscape photog's use, and when do you use them?

 

[Bill]

I use a 10stop ND and a .09 ND to lengthen out my exposures when shooting moving clouds and water. I also have a pair of .9's and have used them together a few times. I also use a circular polarizer for reflections and blue skies.

I gave up on cokin P ND grads so now I just bracket and layer. Its much easier to deal with than the physical filters because I rarely shoot a flat horizon and end up dodging/burning anyways.

A cool filter on my wish list is a Singh-Ray Gold-n-blue but I doubt I will ever get it.

 

[John Fowler]

I pretty much have and do the same as Summit. If you have several lenses that have several different filter sizes, there is a simple solution: Buy filters for the lens with the largest ring size and then get adapters for your other lenses. Adapters are cheap. And you can leave the adapters permanently attached if you also get lens caps of that size. If you use a clear filter to protect your lens you will still have to get one for each lens of course. I get the cheapest ones I can find and remove them before taking a shot that I really care about, then put them back on. More and more, I'm just leaving them off almost all of the time.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

I only use a polarizer and ND filters, as well.

The ND's mostly for waterfalls when it's still too light out, and the polarizer mostly for rock art and sometimes to help with reflections.

 

[Yvonne]

Just a ND filter for waterfall shots. Nothing else, no polarizer, no grad ND

 

[Yvonne]

The ND's mostly for waterfalls when it's still too light out, and the polarizer mostly for rock art and sometimes to help with reflections.

How does the Polarizer help with Rock Art? Do you get sharper images in bad lighting ir when the Rock Art is a bit faded?

 

[jdgibney]

Thanks for the quick responses everyone. I'm gearing up for my trip out there in October, and am going to rent a wide angle lens and mess around with some different filters before buying them down the road. I didn't even realize you could get a step-up ring for larger filters. Thanks for that suggestion, John!

 

[HomerJ]

No one use a UV filter? I read about people using them to protect their camera lens so I bought and use one.

I also use a Circular Polarizer most of the time and when needed I have a .6 ND filter for water shots.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

No one use a UV filter? I read about people using them to protect their camera lens so I bought and use one.

I didn't buy expensive glass to put a cheap filter in front of it.

The lens hood provides enough protection for me, and if my front elements ever get scratched up too badly it isn't that expensive to get replaced from Canon.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

How does the Polarizer help with Rock Art? Do you get sharper images in bad lighting ir when the Rock Art is a bit faded?

The polarizer helps squeeze a little bit more contrast between the art and the rock it's on. It's also a very noticeable improvement if the rock art is in direct sunlight. I also just prefer the look of my rock art photos taken with a polarizer.

 

[DAA]

The polarizer helps squeeze a little bit more contrast between the art and the rock it's on. It's also a very noticeable improvement if the rock art is in direct sunlight. I also just prefer the look of my rock art photos taken with a polarizer.

Ditto. Actually, it's something I started to do after being out on a couple of trips with Randy and seeing his results using the CP for rock art. I started using one for rock art too and like it for exactly the reasons he points out.

My expensive BW circular polarizer got mangled a couple months ago though, so I'm not using it anymore. The wind blew over my tripod on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, broke the lens hood and thrashed the CP. Just very lucky the whole shooting match didn't fall another 18" forward or it would have gone way, way, waaaaaaay down before breaking up on the rocks below...

- DAA

 

[Yvonne]

The polarizer helps squeeze a little bit more contrast between the art and the rock it's on. It's also a very noticeable improvement if the rock art is in direct sunlight. I also just prefer the look of my rock art photos taken with a polarizer.

Thanks Randy
Maybe I should buy a polarizer. Because most of my rock art shots were in bright light and they turned out really bad

 

[gnwatts]

No one use a UV filter? I read about people using them to protect their camera lens so I bought and use one.

I also use a Circular Polarizer most of the time and when needed I have a .6 ND filter for water shots.

I use B&W UV Haze filters on all of my lenses except the 17mm TS-E, which due to it's design will not accept a filter. B&W is regarded as one of the finest glass companies, part of Schneider Kreuznach, which makes arguably the best medium and large format lenses around. They are pretty expensive, but worth it. I start shaking thinking how much it would cost to replace glass elements on my Zeiss telephotos. A $100 dollar filter is cheap insurance. X2 what Randy said about quality. I am not going to put a piece of crap in front of a fine lens.
They make ND and all types of filters BTW.
Greg

 

[Bill]

I think UV filter protection is 100% BS. If you drop a lens and the UV filter breaks its just going to send shards into your front element. I guess if you tap it the UV could crack and the font element could be saved.....

If you want real protecion, get a lens hood.

 

[gnwatts]

Bill
I have had 5 or 6 accidents over the years where my UV filter saved my lens, twice w/broken filter glass, with no damage to the front element. I was lucky I guess.
A lens hood will not protect the glass well enough. Just my experience.
Greg

 

[Nick]

I'm in the 'screw UV filters' crowd. I was able to replace the front element on my Canon ultrawide for $85. I'd happily do that every few years just to keep it looking beautiful and not having to deal with a filter which frequently showed spots if it wasn't perfectly clean. And on the lens hood subject, I'm also a big fan although I've quit using one since I started using a chest pack. But if you look at all the damage on my lens hood, it's pretty good evidence that it's protected the lens quite a bit.

As for filters I do use.. I always pack an ND filter for when I want to shoot some water when it's too bright. Otherwise I never use filters. Real ones at least...

 

[Bill]

Bill
I have had 5 or 6 accidents over the years where my UV filter saved my lens, twice w/broken filter glass, with no damage to the front element. I was lucky I guess.
A lens hood will not protect the glass well enough. Just my experience.
Greg

prove it

 

[jdgibney]

I was shooting a hockey game at Fenway park earlier this year and while getting some wide angle scenic/action shots with our papers 17-35 2.8, a puck came through the photo hole and smashed the uv filter, but the front element glass is fine... Took the hit to the ring of the filter and we can't get the ring off, the threading is toast..

 

[Bill]

Pretty sure you need to hit the same lens with a puck without the UV filter attached....if you really want to prove it

 

[gnwatts]

Prove it?
Impossible!
About 3 years ago lent my Zeiss 35-70mm Vario-Sonnar to my 18 year old son. He tripped and fell with the camera around his neck. He broke the filter, with no damage to the element. I had my camera in my backpack snowboarding a few years ago, it hit a tree branch and i broke the filter on my 17-40L. Element was fine. I shoul.d have checked to make sure the cap was on the lens, but didn't. I have replaced quite a few filters over the years from scratching too.

I like German glass, particularly Zeiss. I don't think Zeiss is any better than Canon, I just like the color more on the Zeiss lenses. The Contax/Yashica lenses are an inexpensive alternative to the Canon L series telephotos. Zeiss front elements are prohibitively expensive though. A $100 filter is a fraction the cost of a lens repair.

Canon lens repair is quite reasonable. I damaged the front element to my Canon 17mm TS-E (tripod tipped into a stone wall) and it cost me about $600 with shipping and insurance. I was relieved at the price.

I now have Merchant Marine Insurance on my equipment, which covers it for any reason or circumstance. I think $10k of insurance is $65 a month.