Do You Need A Uv Filter

A UV filter is a glass filter that attaches to the forepart of your camera lens and blocks ultraviolet rays. They used to be necessary for film photography, but at present nigh photographers utilise them to protect their lenses.

In that location'due south a lot of misinformation well-nigh UV filters out there. Some photographers swear they're essential, while others are equally certain they're a full waste product of money. In some photography shops, the salespeople won't let you lot leave with a new lens unless you lot've as well ponied up for a UV filter; in others, they'll laugh y'all out the door if y'all attempt to buy them. And so what'south the truth? Let's observe out.

What Does a UV Filter Practise?

A UV filter blocks UV light every bit it enters the lens. Think of it as sunscreen for your camera. Some erstwhile photography films were very sensitive to UV light so, if yous didn't apply a UV filter, yous would stop up with a blue haze in your photos. This was particularly mutual if you lot were shooting somewhere there was a lot of UV light, like on a really sunny day or at high altitude. Y'all can come across it in this polaroid by MoominSean on Flickr.

The thing is, modern films and digital sensors merely aren't sensitive to UV light. It doesn't affect them the fashion it does older films. This means y'all don't need a UV filter to block UV light in gild to have expert photos. Nonetheless, this hasn't stopped UV filters from picking up a secondary use as a protective filter for your lenses. Some photographic camera shops are reluctant to let y'all walk out the door with a new lens, if you haven't likewise bought a UV filter to protect it.

Does a UV Filter Protect Your Lens?

The basic thought is that, if you drib your $2,000 lens, instead of breaking the front chemical element of the lens, you intermission your $35 UV filter instead. It'due south a lot easier to just pick upward a new filter rather than ship your lens off to—possibly—go repaired. Unfortunately, while the idea sounds good in theory, information technology doesn't really concord out in practice.

Steve Perry from Backcountry Gallery drop tested a load of different lens filters and lenses and what he found was that the filters added minimal, if any, protection.

Perry's large takeaway was that the glass in UV filters was a lot weaker than the drinking glass used in the front element of lenses so the filters pause from drops that don't fifty-fifty ding a lens, regardless of whether or not there'southward a filter on it. Also, if a lens was hit hard enough that the front element was damaged, at that place was ordinarily big amounts of internal damage too. Even in the few cases where the UV filter might have protected the front element, the lens was dead anyway.

This all means that if you drop your lens with a UV filter and the filter breaks but not the lens, all you probably did was break a filter. The lens would have been fine either mode. And if y'all driblet your lens without a UV filter and information technology breaks, a filter wouldn't accept saved it.

This doesn't mean UV filters offering no protection. Information technology just means they don't offering whatsoever protection from hard drops. They're corking for protecting your lens from grit, scratches, sand, sea spray, and other small environmental hazards.

The Optical Effects of UV Filters

There'south one last thing to consider about UV filters: putting any extra glass in forepart of your lenses affects the image quality.

UV filters block a small per centum (betwixt 0.1 and 5%) of the lite that passes through them. Because of how the light interacts with your filter, this reduces the sharpness and dissimilarity of your images very slightly. It'southward a barely noticeable effect and hands fixed in Photoshop, only it is in that location. It'southward also worse in cheap filters from no-name brands. Filters from the likes of Hoya, B+W, Zeiss, Canon, and Nikon showed the least impact, while filters from brands similar Tiffen showed the biggest.

More seriously, UV filters also make it more likely that you'll get lens flare or ghosting in your images if you're shooting a scene with a bright light source in it. In the image above, y'all tin see some artifacts caused past the UV filter and the lens flare.

Should You Use a UV Filter?

Deciding whether or not you should utilize a UV filter isn't a uncomplicated question. Information technology actually depends. The all-time advice I can give yous is:

A UV filter won't protect your lens from much more than dust and scratches. If you're shooting at the beach or in the desert, putting one on is a good idea, but otherwise, you lot're probably fine without 1.
UV filters have a small effect on the quality of your images. Most of the time, information technology won't make a difference. But if you absolutely demand the highest quality image possible, or your photos are showing lens flare and other artifacts, you should remove your UV filter.

I'd argue that there's definitely a place in your camera purse for a UV filter. But it's up to you whether keeping it on your camera all the time is worth it. I prefer to take my UV filters off if they're affecting my images, other people prefer to put them on if they're shooting somewhere dirty.

Image Credit: Abraksis/Shutterstock