09-06-2010, 08:01 PM
If I may chip in with some observations over time. I started in the filter camp. I got what was probably a single coated filter for my main lens. Now I know it wasn't really any good at anti-reflection. I kept using it without problem until I tried a long exposure night shot, where I first encountered the flare and I stopped using it. I went with the hood is "good enough" protection after that.
As mentioned elsewhere, that ended when one day down the park, I tried to get a little too close to a swan family and one of them pecked the middle of a brand new EF-S 15-85. The hood was useless as protection in that case. There are now two small marks on the lens now, which don't clean off. I'll do a macro of this if people really want. That swung me back to using filters. On review, I settled on Hoya HMC as a good balance of cost and anti-reflection quality. Of course, now I know in what situations flare can happen, I can take precautions such as additional shielding or if unavoidable, removing the filter.
I would add that the damage isn't significant to image quality, but if I ever were to resell it will certainly have an impact. I did also do some serious pixel peeping. In situations where there is no flare or glare, there is no difference I can see to using a filter or not in terms of sharpness. Some filters might have a slight colour cast though.
I suppose further to the video, I could repeat a similar experiment myself. I have an old Sigma zoom lens that is essentially junk (broken AF) so I could do it to that, although no doubt there will be a question on the quality of the coating itself. I'd use some possible real world damage cases, like sand or grit.
As mentioned elsewhere, that ended when one day down the park, I tried to get a little too close to a swan family and one of them pecked the middle of a brand new EF-S 15-85. The hood was useless as protection in that case. There are now two small marks on the lens now, which don't clean off. I'll do a macro of this if people really want. That swung me back to using filters. On review, I settled on Hoya HMC as a good balance of cost and anti-reflection quality. Of course, now I know in what situations flare can happen, I can take precautions such as additional shielding or if unavoidable, removing the filter.
I would add that the damage isn't significant to image quality, but if I ever were to resell it will certainly have an impact. I did also do some serious pixel peeping. In situations where there is no flare or glare, there is no difference I can see to using a filter or not in terms of sharpness. Some filters might have a slight colour cast though.
I suppose further to the video, I could repeat a similar experiment myself. I have an old Sigma zoom lens that is essentially junk (broken AF) so I could do it to that, although no doubt there will be a question on the quality of the coating itself. I'd use some possible real world damage cases, like sand or grit.
<a class="bbc_url" href="http://snowporing.deviantart.com/">dA</a> Canon 7D2, 7D, 5D2, 600D, 450D, 300D IR modified, 1D, EF-S 10-18, 15-85, EF 35/2, 85/1.8, 135/2, 70-300L, 100-400L, MP-E65, Zeiss 2/50, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300/2.8, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Olympus E-P1, Panasonic 20/1.7, Sony HX9V, Fuji X100.