UV Filter Reflects Lens
 

Uh.

Ok. Let's just pretend I finally got a UV filter for a camera and put it on only to find out that I can see the reflection of the camera lens on the back side of it.

Is this something that everyone who uses UV filters lives with? Because I can be careful enough with my camera to not need it.

Not necessarily. Modern filters should have better anti-reflection treatment, like most eyeglasses now have.

So always try to pick a filter or lens that has good anti-reflection properties. Look at different types when you are shopping and pick the most transparent when seen against a dark surface.

Also use the larger sun-shade you can.


Carlos

But isn't the very nature of a UV filter to reduce glare and reflections?

I've found it is only noticeable when I am focused on it but it is still there when I focus beyond it and no doubt degrades the image to some degree. The larger sun shade may be a good fix. Hard to find something that doesn't look a little ridiculous on the HC1000 but then again, it's not what it looks like, it's what the video looks like.

I'm constantly surprised by hom many careful photographers choose, buy and fit a protective UV filter from day one, but don't realise that the filter they've bought isn't coated at all. This is very common, good people, and if you're one of these people I do implore you to go get a proper super multi-coated filter.

You'd never in your wildest dreams consider buying a camcorder with a 12x zoom that had an uncoated front element, but that what's you're getting when you add a plain glass UV, ND or polariser. Not only that, but with silly designs like the TRV900 and Panasonic MX300/500 adding a filter reduces the lens hood efficiency as well as deleting the 4:3 aperture mask.

I have a very simple set-up that demonstrates to douting Thomas' that what I'm saying has real relevance to footage we all shoot. Take it from me - using uncoated filters is worse than having no filter at all.

tom.

Wellllllll....

It was only $6.99...

Can I coat them myself? I wonder if I dipped one of them in gasoline for awhile, what would happen?

No, filters do not reduce glare or reflections, except for polarizers which polarize light at the expense of two stops you lose when they do so.

UV or skylight filters compensate or correct for large ultraviolet or blue tints in daylight.

As Tom says they are still piece of glass that need to be protected with antireflection coats, as lenses are. The more and the more transparent those coats the better.

Please go to a quality photo shop and ask to see different UV filters, and look at them against a dark surface. The more transparent ones and with less reflections will surely be multicoated, and probably more expensive. Try to get the best you can afford.

You got the idea. One problem with small CCD cameras, like the HC1000, is that everything will be in focus, and so will the front lens plane. A shade will take most of the upper brightness, but you will still have the reflections coming from up front. Reflections degrade the image, no doubt about that.

Please do not try to coat your filters or lenses yourself. One problem you can't control is evenness in the coat and consistency. What you can do is use something like vaseline or other things (never tried gasoline) and make yourself a diffusion filter. In that case you are not looking for transparency, as an antireflection coat would improve, but just the opposite. Then it might work.


Carlos

I was just kidding about the gasoline. Thanks for the diffusion filter idea, though! I was just gonna set them aside. I could coat one with vasoline and the other one I could try the gasoline experiment on. Maybe I could even set it on fire while I'm filming? :)