Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/10/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 05:28 PM 10/20/2004, SonC@aol.com wrote: >ummmm. I stopped using filters for protection since I went to Solms one day, >and they pointed out that I was degrading the quality of the lens with the >filter. Sonny is correct. Leica does not advocate the use of filters UNLESS the filter is going to enhance the photograph. All filters will optically degrade the image, according to Leica. So as Sonny says, go nekkid unless you want to enhance the photograph with a polarizer, warming, B+W 060, etc. Since Leica designed the lenses, I tend to believe them. BTW, if you break a filter while it is on your lens, the shards of filter glass can (and many times have) put very nasty scratches in the coating on your lens. The moral being, wear a filter only for photographic effect, then remove it. Oh, one more tidbit, that wonderful very expensive coating that your Leica lens has on it is rendered null and void by covering it with a filter. The coating on ANY filter doesn't come within a country mile of suppressing flare and unwanted ghost images like the bare lens does. By the time the light has passed through the filter, it is already damaged and cannot be corrected by the lens coating. So, no one cares if you do or don't use a filter on your lens. You've been given some facts (from the horses mouth - Leica) and you can choose your own poison. If you use a filter, it should be a B+W or Heliopan. Many Leica UV filters have a yellowish cast to them. I've seen it with my own eyes! JB