Do I need a UV lens?
 

I have not messed with my XL2 too much. In January I'm going on vacation (tropical) and am going to bring my XL2. Do I need a UV lens for it if I am going to be shooting in bright sunny areas?

Personally I always use a uv- or a skylight filter. This protects the lense glass, change a filter is much cheaper than buying a new lense, if you got any scratches!

I would also consider buying a polarizing-filter which give you several options, get dark blue skies, reduce reflected glare off of the surface of the water and so on...

You may wear sunglasses in sunny days, let your camcorder do the same!

- Per Johan

Many people put a UV filter on their lens and just leave it there all the time to protect the expensive glass from damage. The downside is that it can cause internal reflections and image degradation if you're shooting towards the sun, so you need to keep this in mind. But regardless, it's something good to have around.

Per brought up a good point....what about a polarizing filter?

Filters are good, but remember - they only take away. So use them when you must, and leave them off unless you need them. If Canon had thought their zoom would've been better off with 15 elements rather than the 14 it comes with you can bet they would have made it so.

If you do filter the lens, make sure the filter(s) you buy have the finest multi-coating you can get. Remember this filter is now the front element of your expensive lens, as as such needs to have the best coating of any of the elements.

A linear polariser will give you dramatic skies but it won't put you in the talent's best books. It takes the natural sheen out of hair and skin, and can introduce horrendous continuity problems simply by turning 90 degrees and filming that-away.

And do use a good deep lens hood. This is much better than a UV filter.

tom.

I have a UV on every lens I own.The key is to not put a junky cheap filter on top of your $2000 glass. A good UV filter will be no less than $50, I recommend Hoya or Tiffen...




ash =o)

I used to recommend Tiffen, but do watch out. A good friend ordered a Tiffen UV and polariser for his DVX - not cheap at 72 mm diameter. And neither lens was coated.

I'm definately in the "clear/UV filters are cheap protection for expensive lenses" camp. I'm also in the "not too cheap" camp.

So in addition to hoya and tiffen, check out Schneider Optics, parent company of Century Optics. Scheider and Tiffen have lots of good information available on their websites:

<http://www.centuryoptics.com/products/filters/index.htm>

<http://www.tiffen.com/tiffen_filters.html>

Jim

Many filters are not multicoated. I have 4x4 glass filters for my cameras and they are not multicoated. Usually you will only have one filter in front of the camera, but that my vary. I sometimes will have two, or three mounted: diffusion, LB and ND. Be sure that you have a good matte box and keep the flares off the front element.

Be sure to get an eyebrow for the matte box, or a french flag. Black foamcor, or Blackwrap can be a wonderful thing.

The polarizer is most effective 90 degrees from the sun. The closer the angle to the sun, the less effective the polarization.

The polarizer is most effective 90 degrees from the sun. The closer the angle to the sun, the less effective the polarization.[/QUOTE]

And this is precicely what makes for continuity headaches. Using a polarisor you have to be very careful where you place the talent and from which direction you shoot, otherwise each 90 degree different shot looks like another day.

tom.

The responses to your question have primarily addressed the use of a UV filter as a lens protection device, which in itself is a good thing where you may have salt spray and sand to contend with. No one has really addressed the photographic reason for using a UV filter, which is to reduce the blue haze that reduces the sharpness in the distance. Can the high end blue also result in color blocking?

CCDs aren't very sensitive to UV light so a UV filter won't be nearly as effective in terms of image improvement as they are with film.