Ever start something on fire with a magnifying glass when you were a kid? Sure, I have shot plenty of sunsets without damaging my camera. But I used external ND filters and a lot of common sense. If the sun is so bright that you wouldn't look directly into with the naked eye, then pointing your camera at it probably isn't such a good idea either...

But that has nothing to do with the point I was making about reflections and dirt degrading your image when using a filter and pointing the camera towards any light source...

So I shouldn't consider my UV Filter protection enough to shoot even the mildest of sunsets?

The UV filter won't help with sunsets in any way at all AFAIK. Protecting your camera from UV shouldn't be an issue. The intensity of the light and its possible damaging effects on the CCD's and other internal parts is what you need to worry about.

Exactly - Unfortunately, when I purchased the filter pack, I did so under the impression that a UV filter did exactly that - protected the CCDs! I guess I was incorrect.

OK, now I understand what you meant in your earlier post about "protecting the insides of your camera." The only real "protection" you get from a UV filter is keeping dirt and scratches off the lens.

The phrase "caveat emptor" comes to mind here.... ;-)

AND keeping that all so blue sky blue...

Do you really think a UV filter helps with that? I'm not so sure.... just now holding up a UV filter and looking out the window at the sky and I don't see any difference. A linear polarizer can help keep the sky blue under some conditions - it depends on which direction the sun is coming from however.

The documentary I am currently shooting involves a high action sport with flying inline-hockey balls, mallets, bicycles, beer and drunken riders. I never remove my UV lens when shooting this type of action.

Yes.... a Piece of glass will protect your camera from a drunken rider with a mallet on a bycile shouldting "I've got a hockey ball!!!" And all of a sudden you get his attention, and everything just goes wrong...

But seriously though, I've always belived those diagrams you are given when buying a UV filter "Before and After" pictures with a UV filter. It claims to make the sky blue when the camera thinks its pale...... But for a long time, I always just saw it as a piece of useless glass known to the professionals as the flyscreen. Also known as a "goggle" or making a camera Five Eyes...