Lens filters are sooooo important!

[mooncancook]

Just share my little story that just happened.

I dropped my lens on the hard floor from waist height, head first. I was like . The glass on the UV filter shattered. I unthreaded the filter and threw it away and found the lens unscathed. Tested the lens immediately, it still works. What a relief. The $60 UV filter sacrificed himself to save the $900 lens. RIP, my humble little UV filter.

So lesson learned:
1. Always have a lens filter
2. Be very careful with expensive camera equipment

 

[herm0016]

you pay 60 bucks for your filters?

we had a friend knock our camera off a picnic table onto the aluminum bench, lens first. same results as yours, cost us 5 bucks!

 

[Syborg1211]

Was the lens hood not on? I find those protect lenses way better than uv filters.

 

[MrSquished]

you pay 60 bucks for your filters?

we had a friend knock our camera off a picnic table onto the aluminum bench, lens first. same results as yours, cost us 5 bucks!

what's the point of having expensive lens glass but then stick a cheap el-crapo filter on it so that the image gets 'filtered' through an inferior piece of glass?

you don't need a filter to protect a lens from falling, just a good lens and for it not to get struck directly on the glass. i had a 12-35mm M43 panasonic pro lens in my bag strapped to an ATV and didn't zip it up all the way once. it fell out the back onto a rocky dirt road going 15-20mph. Slight ding on the lens body itself, lens has worked perfectly for the last 5.5 years though.

 

[mooncancook]

you pay 60 bucks for your filters?

we had a friend knock our camera off a picnic table onto the aluminum bench, lens first. same results as yours, cost us 5 bucks!

I usually buy $30 Hoya filter for kit lens, but for a $900 lens I bought a higher quality B+W filter.

 

[mooncancook]

Was the lens hood not on? I find those protect lenses way better than uv filters.

No I didn't have the lens hood on. A mounted lens hood would have saved both the filter and lens probably. But even if I have it I usually have it mounted backward until I need to use it so it wouldn't have helped in that situation. Anyway I was very glad that the impact didn't mess up the auto-focus motor of the lens.

 

[corkyg]

Would not a rubber collapsible hood have offered better protection?

 

[Skybound Photographer]

Was the lens hood not on? I find those protect lenses way better than uv filters.

I was thinking the same thing. Personally I never got into UV filters. Had a 70-200mm role off a table (it wasn't on my camera), the hood took the hit and the lens survived.

 

[jhansman]

Used to keep a clear, "protector" filter on my most used lenses until I realized that sharpness and color were compromised. Now I keep the lens cap on until I shoot, or like others here, a hood. The only filters I put between my subject and glass are a polarizer or ND.

 

[Red Storm]

Used to keep a clear, "protector" filter on my most used lenses until I realized that sharpness and color were compromised. Now I keep the lens cap on until I shoot, or like others here, a hood. The only filters I put between my subject and glass are a polarizer or ND.

I currently use an Amazon Basics UV filter, which is really just there for physical protection. But the sharpness tradeoff does have me thinking to take it off and just go with the lens hood on at all times.