[wim]

I reckon it's a question of priorities and of course, also "lesson learnt" experiences. I had a couple of different experiences when I thought, the filter now would be broken, too - or only the filter would be broken. I really should work on my struggle with gravity and it's effect on lenses :/ Both ways can be a bit of a risk. As Roger also puts out: Although there's nearly no effect for a scratched front element to the pictures, there certainly is one when it comes to resale value.

Yes, for sure. But to be very honest, as long as you treat your lenses carefully, keep the boxes, etc., resale value is higher than for those lenses which no longer look as new and have no boxes anymore. That does include scratches indeed, micro or otherwise . Using filters means you don't have to clean the front lens, so the chance of micro scratches is also absolutely minimal.

Kind regards, Wim