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Lens filters
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Who can help me out on this? It’s probably a daft question to ask. :oops:
I have a Canon EOS 350D Digital SLR, with EF-S 18-55mm lens. Working on the ins and outs of it at the mo. From a lens side of it, I know jack about filters, what they do, when I should you use them. :?I see a huge amount about, different ones on the net for different sizes e.g. “B+W UV Haze (010) Glass Filter ES, 55mm Filter factor is 1.0.” Is the size 55mm the size for the lens I have above and what is ” filter factor is 1.0.” Are they worth getting.
Comments and mickey taking are welcomed. :lol:
The EFS 18-55 takes 58mm filters. Look inside your lens cap and it might tell you the size in mm.
UV and ‘haze’ filters are all but useless on digital cameras except as protection for the element, the sensor already has UV and IR filters on it. The only ones that for me are still indespensible are the polariser, ND (Neutral density) and ND grads, the grads allow you to hopefully balance the sky and the landscape so you dont get either a dark landscape and nice sky or a nice landscape and a white sky. A lot of people are now taking two RAW files at the same time but bracketing by a stop or two then combining the two pics in photoshop. I already spend more time in photoshop than I would like so I still rely on my Cokin ND grads. The standard ND filters allow you to use longer exposures in brighter light or use smaller aperture settings for small depth of field.
Most other filter effects I find easier to replicate in photoshop, except some effects that I find a bit cheesy anyway, like starburst.
I dont like putting anything in front of the lens unless its doing something important for the photo so I only ever carry the three mentioned above.
If your getting the Cokin system, go for the ‘P’ system as it will work with all your lenses whereas the A series goes as large as 58mm I think. I buy a couple of rings for each lens size and a filter holder for each lens so I’m not swapping them over in the field. With super wide angles like my Tamron 11-18mm or Nikkor 12-24 I saw off all but the last filter holder so it doesn’t vignette.
One tip for using ND Grads, you can see the effect it has much better if you dial in F20 or 22 in Aperture priority or manual and hold down the depth of field preview, this is especially important if the ND grad is a hard stop (ie an abrupt change from light to dark).
Thanks, Brandyman will look out for that.
CianMcLiam
Right UV and ‘haze’ filters are best as protection. Look out for polariser, ND (Neutral density) and ND grads.
Thanks for the words of wisdom.
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