# How does a UV filter enhance my photos?



## tenthumbs (Mar 10, 2010)

I got a UV filter with my new camera (Pentax Kx) and it's not really clear to me what situations I would use it.  I took a few pics with and without but I don't see much difference.  What's it for?

Thanks!


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## Goontz (Mar 10, 2010)

Do a search here on the forums and you'll find many threads arguing the importance (or lack thereof) of UV filters. They're usually marketed as cutting down on haze and atmospheric blah blah. Truthfully, anyone that uses them does so for no other reason than protection. That is, they use them so that if anything were to hit and possibly break or scratch the front of the lens, only a cheap filter would need replacing rather than a whole lens. 

The other 'party' will say that it will degrade your image quality more than any protection benefits and never use a UV filter. Personally, I don't use one.


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## r31ncarnat3d (Mar 10, 2010)

tenthumbs said:


> I got a UV filter with my new camera (Pentax Kx) and it's not really clear to me what situations I would use it.  I took a few pics with and without but I don't see much difference.  What's it for?
> 
> Thanks!



Still a bit of a beginner myself, but my understanding is that UV filters are there to protect the lenses from damage by UV radiation, prevent hazing in your lenses, and protect your eye from UV radiation. It does not have anything to do with picture quality and is more of a protection/safety thing.

I use one myself purely for lens protection. It's much easier for me to replace a scratched/damaged filter than it is for me to replace a scratched/damaged lens.


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## Dao (Mar 10, 2010)

Photographic filter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Big Mike (Mar 10, 2010)

> Still a bit of a beginner myself, but my understanding is that UV filters are there to protect the lenses from damage by UV radiation, prevent hazing in your lenses, and protect your eye from UV radiation. It does not have anything to do with picture quality and is more of a protection/safety thing.


I've never heard that one before.  I'd guess that if there was enough UV radiation to harm a lens, even over time, then the photographer would have suffered serious damage.  http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/burnt_to_a_crisp.jpg

As mentioned, I think the most common use of UV filters are physical protection...as in, it keeps crap from getting onto the front element of the lens and might take the brunt of a fall if you drop the lens etc.  Of course, there are 'clear' filters that do that, but people seem to use UV filters just as or more often.  As for the bennefits to the image quality, cutting UV/sky haze etc....I don't know, maybe.  :scratch:


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## r31ncarnat3d (Mar 10, 2010)

Big Mike said:


> > Still a bit of a beginner myself, but my understanding is that UV filters are there to protect the lenses from damage by UV radiation, prevent hazing in your lenses, and protect your eye from UV radiation. It does not have anything to do with picture quality and is more of a protection/safety thing.
> 
> 
> I've never heard that one before.  I'd guess that if there was enough UV radiation to harm a lens, even over time, then the photographer would have suffered serious damage.  http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/burnt_to_a_crisp.jpg
> ...



Again, I'm new to photography, so there is a very good chance I'm completely wrong


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## Bitter Jeweler (Mar 10, 2010)

Doesn't the sensor have a UV filter already on it?

UV filters were useful on film cameras, but no longer needed on digital.


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## Derrel (Mar 10, 2010)

UV filters are a huge profit maker for camera retailers. The $19.99 UV filter is sold as a way to add cost to a camera and lens or a camera package, with the ostensible goal of it being to "protect the lens" or to "cut ultraviolet light". What the customer doesn't know is that the filter is often a very low-cost item purchased in bulk by the dealer, and sold so as to make a tidy $17 profit or so from each sale. The markup on filters, and especially off-brand filters, is insanely high. It helps stores make a decent profit on new items which have a surprisingly skinny margin on them, like new cameras and lenses.


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## burstintoflame81 (Mar 10, 2010)

Most filters are sold as protection as people on this post already pointed out. Any big hit to your lens that is hard enough to break a filter is going to do damage to your lens simply by the vibration of the impact. I had UV filters for the same reason as a beginner and got rid of them all because they degraded the image and if you take care of your equipment, damage shouldn't be an issue. I actually fell when walking through Yosemite shooting a deer with my 85mm F/1.8. I stepped on a stump that was completely hollow underneath from bugs. I broke through and went down to my thigh. No lens cap or filter. Put a mark on my lens from hitting a branch as I tried to brace my fall. I had one of those buffer felt tip pens/brushes ( $7 at Frys Electronics, much better investment than a UV filter ) It buffed the mark right out and the lense looked flawless.


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## thomas.corbett (Mar 10, 2010)

Big Mike said:


> > Still a bit of a beginner myself, but my understanding is that UV filters are there to protect the lenses from damage by UV radiation, prevent hazing in your lenses, and protect your eye from UV radiation. It does not have anything to do with picture quality and is more of a protection/safety thing.
> 
> 
> I've never heard that one before.  I'd guess that if there was enough UV radiation to harm a lens, even over time, then the photographer would have suffered serious damage.  http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/burnt_to_a_crisp.jpg
> ...




I use one to protect my lens from dust and being hit by anything. (or my dogs nose. you can use pp for filter affects easy.


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## Joves (Mar 10, 2010)

UV filters will not help your photos. For my glass I use the clears if it is a case of want to keep the front element clean. Dont go cheap because even the low priced clear glass has distrotion at the lower end. Now a good Circular Polarizer will help you in cetrain circumstances as will Neutral Density filter for effects. But again dont go cheap because, cheap = trash.


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## Dwig (Mar 10, 2010)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> Doesn't the sensor have a UV filter already on it?
> 
> UV filters were useful on film cameras, but no longer needed on digital.



Yes, digital sensors are already filtered so adding one to the lens is of no advantage. 

Also, all color films for the past one third of a century or so have been pre-filtered. It hasn't been since the days of Ektachrome-X (process E-4) and Kodachrome II and X (process K-14) that any Kodak color film needed a UV filter under any conditions. Even then, the effect of a UV was small. UVs haven't had any significant utility since the 1950's and the E-2 and K-12 class films.


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## KmH (Mar 10, 2010)

burstintoflame81 said:


> ...Any big hit to your lens that is hard enough to break a filter is going to do damage to your lens simply by the vibration of the impact...


Nah. It doesn't take much of a hit to shatter a clear or UV filter, and as far as vibration having any effect on the rest of the lens, it would depend on the mode of vibration, it's amplitude and it's direction.


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## burstintoflame81 (Mar 10, 2010)

KmH said:


> burstintoflame81 said:
> 
> 
> > ...Any big hit to your lens that is hard enough to break a filter is going to do damage to your lens simply by the vibration of the impact...
> ...


 
Where do you think the shattered pieces of that UV filter are going? Right into your lens. They aren't completely useless because they keep dust off, but you still have to clean the dust off the filter before shooting, just as you would have to clean it off your lens. So whats the difference?


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## Joves (Mar 10, 2010)

burstintoflame81 said:


> KmH said:
> 
> 
> > burstintoflame81 said:
> ...


  Better glass shards on your lens than the front element being the one broken. I have scratched filters before even though I had the lens hood on. Also if you are going to sell a lens how well do you think one will sell with a scratch on it?
  The difference is Id rather keep wiping things off of an inexpesive element over an expensive one. Also it depends on where you live some places are dustier than others. Like where I live. When I visit back easst I dont usually have the same problem so the filters are off.


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## KmH (Mar 10, 2010)

Joves said:


> burstintoflame81 said:
> 
> 
> > KmH said:
> ...


 
Those shards usually gouge right into the objective glass they were supposed to 'protect', which is one of the main reasons why I advocate _against_ using filters for 'protection'.

Once the filter is shattered and the metal holding the shards to the outer mount is bent, you put nice round scratches on the objective glass when you're able to unscrew the now destroyed filter. Frequently, getting a broken, shattered filter off the lens is a real trick necessitating a trip to the repair shop just to get it off.

Joves,

I lived in Tucson until late 2005, a desert environment much dustier than your mountain environment around Flagstaff.

I found a brush and blower removed dust with no problem. For me wiping a lens with a lens tissue, or anything else, is a last resort and to be avoided if at all possible, not a routine. I think last year I wiped one of my lenses twice, and another once but other than the brush and blower none of the others was touched.

Filters are flat, thin, and much easier to break than objective lenses as a general rule.

Objective glass is frequently backed by other glass elements making it a real task to break that type of objective.

Other types of lens have the objective thin in the middle but very robust as you approach the edges, like a fisheye lens, and most of those you can't put a filter on anyway.


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## burstintoflame81 (Mar 10, 2010)

I live in Phoenix, I know it can get dusty, and at times they are useful. I try to avoid extreme dusty situations anyway, but the majority of the time UV filters are crap that stores use as an easy upsell and everyone falls for it. The point I was making about the shards of glass is that your lens is going to get damaged too. How far away from that filter do you think your front element is? go take your lens outside with the filter on it and whack it with something hard enough to shatter that filter if you are so confirdent that it will protect it.


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