Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/02/26
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 9:55 AM, Roger Hart <rhart76 at gmail.com> wrote: > A filter on a lens is another layer of protection, not only from the > elements like rain, snow and sand. I agree with this, but in these days of microfiber cloth, I think only sand is a major culprit to worry about. > Not to mention a lick from a dog. Trust > me...if a dog licks one of your lenses...clean it off quickly. Never heard this. Is a dog lick worse than a people lick for lens coating? Should I not lick my lens or filter for that matter to add moisture? Why? > Another protection is in case the lens gets dropped or banged against a > hard > surface. Much cheaper to replace a dinged filter than the lens. My experience here, is that both get dinged, the filter gets bent onto the front of the lens and has to be professionally removed. The only time I've ever had a front element injury that a filter would have prevented was a freak accident that you would hardly believe. I dropped something out of my pocket into my open camera bag and it landed on the front element of a 90 mm tele-elmarit. That was 15 years ago. It made a chip in the lens and you cannot see the problem in nay picture from that lens. > . I look at filters > as just a little insurance policy. > Several years ago I visited the Leica factory at Solms for a tour. I had my Leica M6 with a 28mm Elmarit with a UV on it. The folks giving the tour suggested I didn't need the UV filter. He took my lens, and a common pencil eraser, and cleaned my lens with it, blew away the dust, smiled, and handed it back to me. I use IR cut filters on most of my lenses now, but only because I like the accurate color it provides with my M8. If it weren't for the extra work, I probably would leave them off. -- Regards, Sonny http://www.sonc.com http://sonc.stumbleupon.com/ Natchitoches, Louisiana (+31.754164,-093.099080) USA