DSLRUsers.com

I'm looking for a filter to protect the front element of my 70-200VR.

Firstly, will a good quality UV or skylight filter degrade the image quality at all?

Secondly, UV or Skylight?

Thirdly, Hoya or B+W?

I read this thread which suggests that the Hoya's aren't as good as the B+W's.

Can some 70-200 owners tell me what they use?

Cheers,
GC

I have a Hoya HMC UV filter on my 70-200 VR. Never had a problem.

I would agree with what Peter has just said.
Buy it, screw it on, forget about it!

I've got the same filter on my 80-200 AFS - don't even know that it's there

So this one (HCM Super) or this one (HCM) would be OK?

I have the HMC Super (O) brand.

greencardigan wrote:I'm looking for a filter to protect the front element of my 70-200VR.

Firstly, will a good quality UV or skylight filter degrade the image quality at all?

I guess that's debatable - stuff like this http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00GGtp pops up regularly on forums around the place. It may be specific to certain lens/filter combinations.

Reflections between the front element and the filter are another problem which can be encountered, best to remove a filter when shooing into strong light sources. Sometimes it's not easy to see the flare spots in a D70 viewfinder, as there is quite a few flare artefacts present in the viefinder under these conditions which don't appear on the picture. (Maybe due to the AF beamsplitter)

Cheers

I'd recommend the Nikon L37c or Nikon NC filter, or if not those then the B+W MRC. The Hoya SHMC is OK. I've seen on another forum showing various tests of filters for flaring/ghosting, the Nikons were the best, followed by the B+W and then the quality degraded from there based on price of filter.

A simple test you can do with filters is the place the filter on top of a white piece of paper. You will see that the Nikon filters are absolutely clear with no colour cast or image quality loss whereas with the cheaper filters (Hoya etc) you can see a definite colour cast.

gooseberry wrote:I'd recommend the Nikon L37c or Nikon NC filter.

HKSupplies has the Nikon NC filters on ebay for about $75 AUD delivered. Might be the way to go.

Gee, you have a 70-200 VR, I had one once, got rid of it...... Cheap nikon garbage!!!!

Raskill wrote:Gee, you have a 70-200 VR, I had one once, got rid of it...... Cheap nikon garbage!!!!

Yeah, I got it from some guy on this forum.
And it looks well looked after for "cheap Nikon garbage"

after acquiring my VR I took Fozzies advice (below) and bought the B + W for $115. Very happy so far.

1. I use B+W MRC (010M) UV-HAZE Filters and purchased in Australia from:

http://www.mainlinephoto.com.au/category19_1.htm

Filters are made by this company, and worthwhile looking at:

http://www.schneideroptics.com/filters/ ... otography/

Unfortunately they do not come cheap. Hoya do have problems with flaking coating.

I work on the theory, buy once.

cheers

rookie2

uv filters don't affect image quality sometimes when they get dirty they can cause artistic flare in some lighting conditions

see all those tack sharp images in the newspaper, photo journalists lens are full of crap and most of the time they dont clean them and they still produce clear and shrap images

i use the nikon L37C

and the hoya super HMC (0)

Thanks for the help everyone.

There's a Nikon NC filter in the mail heading my way.

Most of the filters cited are just really good protectors. I think I have sacrificed at least 3 filters by dropping camera and having filter take the full brunt of the crash. That's why I like filters with a wider depth on the sides.

Peter Mc

petermmc wrote:I think I have sacrificed at least 3 filters by dropping camera and having filter take the full brunt of the crash.

Wouldn't a lens hood be much more effective in a situation like that?

Cheers
Steffen.