second from left does look most natural .. btw, what filters were used for the test? .. ..

UV filters are usually used primarily for protecting the front elements of the lens. There's not much difference in IQ when used in most conditions but cheapo UV filters will tend to give you more problems such as flaring and ghosting when the situation arises.

My Hoya UV filter will sometimes give bad ghosting, reflecting sources of light that is outside of the frame.

Good UV filters will give you lesser problems with flaring and ghosting but the best IQ you can get is without using any filters. How to tell? Just take off your lens filter and look at the front elements of your lens. Can you see much reflections on it? Now mount your filter and look at it again. See the amount of reflections that is visible now. The more reflective the filter is, the more problems it will give you with flaring and ghosting.

Your lens elements is specially coated to minimise problems like flaring or ghosting. That's why they are expensive. Mounting a filter kind of negates the coating's effect on your lens because the glass on the filter will probably not have as good a coating as your lens has.

It's a trade off. Most will bear with a little loss of IQ to protect the lens. Most would rather throw away a filter than a lens. Imagine if a drop of soft drink landed on your lens. Wouldn't you prefer the acid in the soft drink to destroy your filter's coating than your lens' coating?

This post has been edited by shootkk: Jun 29 2009, 09:35 AM

i still prefer to have filter ... to protect my lens if accidentally drops my camera and to cover my lens from rain drops during raining day photo shooting

Thank you very much for a good explnation. .. So, I have decided to get a mid range uv filter for my 67mm and 77mm instead of getting high end 77mm and use step down ring to fit 67mm .. ..

Thanks bro for the information.

quite obvious there are couple of images, and i also asked which is which filter and i also mention comparison... so in short, different filters were used for each images to prove differences in filter.

here's the filter used



conclusion, rank of filters

1) Hoya HD
2) B+w (alloy)
3) Hoya Pro1
4) No filter
5) Hoya HMC

the ranks also correspond to the price paid i believe...

Equipment used is Canon 40D + Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS L

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Added on June 29, 2009, 10:42 amThink twice, see the result i posted. And you will use filter on the long run to protect front element of your lens, so stepping up or down is not recommended. You will try not to touch the filter as much as possible to avoid scratching the front element.

My 50mm f1.8 has no filter cause the normal Hoya which cost RM 30 is just bad. Hoya HD / B+w will cost almost half of the lens, i decided to leave it open

This post has been edited by Vincent Pang: Jun 29 2009, 10:42 AM

I don't quite understand. Why is the shot of fluorescent light tube the determining factor for UV filter? Perhaps you can also explain a little bit more on the methodology of your test. What camera setting (exif of all shot would be nice), what white balance setting, etc.

if u think it's flaw, then it's flaws

if u think i cheat, then i cheat

nothing i want to defend and rather nothing i want to explain cause i understand LYN too well.

I'm believing what i'm seeing. I'm only getting B+W and Hoya HD filters for all my future lenses... if you are not believing it, i'm not forcing u to believe it

the test was what i think is simple, screw in the filter, shoot something. Ppl in LYN will argue day until night why don't u shoot something else... why use canon and not nikon, why use auto WB, why use 70-200 f2.8 IS and not any other lens... why don't use tripod... i don't think i wanna go about explaining that.

As i say, it's a simple test, my friend came over to test out some lenses, i grab wat i have and use the normal setting i normally use and shoot. The only difference are filters used. I took the image with this '\' angle, i also took the image with '/' angle.

I don't work for Hoya, B+w or Canon, i don't really care if u think it's flaws/cheat or watever u call it i believe wat i see... and i'm sharing wat i see... i won't spend too much time doing another test too to prove i'm right as i say, i don't care if i'm wrong

HiroBoroi: no the post is not against u... hope u don't get offended... cheers

i dont understand the yellow colour thingy in the photos. what are those?

i also don't know it's a weird thing i pick up using different filter... no the images are not edited, just copy paste... might be my auto WB not working properly... but it's something i don't like seeing in my photos...

try the same filter and do the same thing again (if u dont mind and same reading again) and see the thing appear again or not

Youre using auto white balance? Maybe that explains the yellow cast. Perhaps the camera is adding some additional things into the equation.

Shooting fluorescent lighting is bad if you wanna compare colour, because depending on which phase of the 50 Hz you are shooting, you will get different colour white balance.

(FYI the fluorescent lighting is flickering at a frequency of 50Hz because that's what our power supply is running at.)

Sorry if this has been pointed out before...

Actually, using a fluorescent light is not the best choice of light source to show flaring or ghosting.

Reason being fluorescent lights flickers! We can't see it with our eyes as it flickers much too fast for us but the camera is able to capture as it goes through its cycles.

Those yellow or sometimes brown colour patches are caused by the flickering of the tube. You can try it. Set your cam to continuous shots, aim it at the tube and fire away. You can get similar kind of yellow or brown patches in some of your shots.

between UV n CPL which one is best one to get? kinda confused a bit bout IQ using those filters coz izzit ok if i use CPL for indoor shoot (hotel)?

I check the EXIF, shutter speed is 1/1600. I shoot at different angle too... and it's consistent

it could be flickering, but it should be on both sides... See that Pro1 and B+w has some yellow / brownish only on the bottom right side of the photo and not on the left side of the photo. It's a round tube, it's not possible to have it on one side and not the other.

Hoya HD is clean however i shoot it... i first thought it was the angle... i shoot -, /, \, |... all same on HD, no yellowish...

i even clean the lens and filter thinking it could be some oil

some of the point to note
1) how often do u have time to figure out how to fix the problem when you have an event going on?
2) is angle the problem ? Hoya HD has not have such issue. B+w only has some yellowish on this photo and shows none on other angles.
3) if it's flickering, how come it's not both sides since the tube is round
4) why yellow? i don't know hahahaha
5) is that something u'll be happy to see on ur photos? yes and no... in my case, i would say no...

no hassle, Hoya HD or B+W only, I don't have Pro1 with me now, it was my friend one, y don't u guys try it ? Hoya and B+w might be paying me under table, who knows... hahahahaha.. u guys try it out and share ur results

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Added on June 29, 2009, 2:38 pmu get 2-stop down with CPL, meaning slower shutter and thus killing some ambient to a certain extend... i don't think it's ok... any particular usage indoor for CPL?

This post has been edited by Vincent Pang: Jun 29 2009, 04:40 PM

guess Hoya HD is an alternative to B+W ... now i can get 58mm, 62mm and 67mm for my lens ... no need to use step up ring to 77mm

i dunno that's y i ask juz kinda curious if there's any IQ effect using CPL for indoor purposes
i still can't decide shud i go for UV (protection) or CPL (protection + good for outdoor)

CPL will cut the amount of light entering your lens (around 1/2 to 1 stop I think), but if you have flash, that's not much of a problem indoors (batteries will be your problem xD )

As for the "why yellow in one part and not the other" question, I believe it has something to do with the shutter curtain. Since it is very high shutter speed, then maybe only parts of the sensor is exposed to the light at any one time (the shutter starts closing before all of the sensor is exposed). So Different parts of the sensor is exposed to different phase of the flicker frequency.

That's only my theory lah

This post has been edited by chucky: Jun 29 2009, 04:53 PM

if wanna shoot a shine / glass product or shoot a product on a glass need to use CPL to kill the reflection.

It's not recommended to use CPL for indoors unless you want it specifically to cut some reflection on some surfaces. If you want protection then use UV. CPL more for outdoors. CPL as protection is overkill plus it cuts down on light.

If you want best IQ and you're shooting indoors with no obvious hazards then just remove all filters lor.