I wear out the filters because I have the appalling habit of cleaning the lenses with whatever I have handy. Table napkins, shirt tails, my tie if I'm on a wedding job. I do carry lens cleaning cloths, but they always seem to migrate to the bottom of my camera bag, and if I need a clean lens in a hurry...
Make no mistake, filter quality makes a huge difference in your optics.
The image below is one example of what a poor Tiffen UV/Haze filter can do to a Canon 100-400 zoom. Note the diagonal bias to the bokeh and the lack of sharpness in the subject.
I was almost to the point of sending the lens back to Canon for repair, when coincidentally I impacted the filter and broke it. Having removed it I noticed the bokeh got nice and smooth.
Since then I've put on a Hoya HMC UV(0) and the bokeh only suffered a tiny bit.
-Noel
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Noel, If I had an image that blurry, I'd look to see if someone spit on the filter. I can understand your concern, but honestly it looks like shake, not a filter problem. I just got my S5 in the door an hour ago, so once I get a chance, I'll post some with & without cheap filter shots and you can see the S5 file vs. Canon at the same time. Our T&I season has started, so I will get it done as soon as I can. Any bets on results - I like winning bets.
Doug
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Although there are situations and shooting conditions where it might make sense to temporarily sacrifice image quality to preserve $1000+ lenses, I've never understood people who buy really high-end glass, then permanently affix a $20 filter to the front.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
The image below is one example of what a poor Tiffen UV/Haze filter can do to a Canon 100-400 zoom. Note the diagonal bias to the bokeh and the lack of sharpness in the subject.
I was almost to the point of sending the lens back to Canon for repair, when coincidentally I impacted the filter and broke it. Having removed it I noticed the bokeh got nice and smooth.
Since then I've put on a Hoya HMC UV(0) and the bokeh only suffered a tiny bit.
Though the image looks odd, the "lack of sharpness" in the subject (bird's eye) looks like plain 'ol focus error.
To make a valid conclusion, one should, at a minimum, do the following:
- lock down the camera/lens on the sturdy tripod
- use fixed manual focus
- shoot with and without a filter
- shoot at least two filters to see if the problem is a particular filter
- repeat the above at least twice, varying the order of testing, and verify consistent results.
- ideally, verify results with another lens
It is the case that certain acrylic filters can interact badly with longer focal length lenses. But I've never seen any ill effects with quality (eg B+W) filters.
__________________ Lloyd Chambers, diglloyd.com, Blog, Free articles: Digital Infrared, Consumer Digicams and Diffraction, Firewire and USB Card Readers, Focus Accuracy, PowerMac G5 Internal Drive Kits, MacBook Pro Experience Report, DPP Batch Processing, Lens Mount Misalignment, Color Temperature and Noise, Nikon Capture Noise Reduction/Speed/Stability/Color Aberration Control, Background blur, Depth of Field, In-depth Reviews: Zeiss ZF Lenses, Guide to Digital Infrared, TheSharpestImage, 28mmShiftLenses
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
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