UV filters.

Thanks colin, ouch there quite pricey, after seeing the video stefan posted i'm not quite so worried, and if mike dont use them on £300+ lens then i'm wondering what i'm concerned about to be honest as untill i can afford it my lenses dont touch that.

UV filters degrade image quality by putting an extraneous piece of plastic in front of your lens. The only situation in which I would consider this is in a very sandy/dusty environment - rainwater can be wiped off. If you are worried about damage to the lens (dropping it on the front element or whatever), then get photo insurance (you can get a discount through this site IIRC).

Well I for one will always use a protective daylight or uv filter. A good quality glass one - never plastic As for insurance, well some lenses just cannot be replaced!

Strikes me there's two schools of thought here

Filter on at all times

Filter on when it's only needed .

You pays your money [ literally ] and you makes your choice.

I've made mine having seen someone in our class drop his camera on the floor and err , well let's just say it was most unfortunate and there was no filter on .

Very interesting topic, I watched Stefan's hammer and lens video and winced on every hit, worst horror movie I have ever seen. Re lenses breaking, I once foolishly left my old Pentax MZ50 with kit lens & UV filter in its camera bag, on the washing machine. The washing machine was turned on and the whole lot went for a walk. The camera hit the concrete floor, causing the UV and lens to shatter into a million pieces.

after reading everyones comments i decided to do a little test, (not much as i'm at work) i took the uv filter off my 50mm 1.7 to see if there were any diffences, a little sharper i think without seeing them on the pc, but the biggest thing was the focusing, i've always found it hard work getting that lens to focus, and found it quite slow in doing so, without the uv filter it was like a different lens, focussed really quick and easily.

Kenko make a lens protector,according to the company, the MC Protector will not "affect the colour balance of the scene being photographed".
A 67mm filter will set you back between £25-30.
Regards
Chris

My Pentax 600 F4 and 300 F2.8 both come with lens protection filters as standard. I believe they are part of the lens group and removing them would affect lens performance. However, in the event of damage, the front element is protected and it is a protection filter only (maybe) that would have to be replaced!

I'm a bit sceptical about what you are trying to say, I'm not saying it isn't true what happened but that a "thin" filter would have make a difference.

Like Technoblurb says:
Normal screw-in filters are not designed to take an impact blow so I don't know where that idea came from?

This what B+W says about their protection filter.
Am I being thick now?

Just recounting a story, not making any point at all Stefan

So was I and it was a story that I had witnessed

Now i really see the point about the can of worms.

the only reason i would/have been useing a uv is to stop the front element getting knocked or marked accidently, i wouldnt expect it to protect a lens from being dropped

Technoidiot the story you were telling about the lens falling read to me as a reason why you use an UV filter.
It just so happen that Technoblurb has a story of his lens falling with an UV filter and it didn't do him any good.
That's why I'm trying to say that an UV filter will not protect your lens if it falls.

I hope you see the connection now, that I'm trying to make

And Stefan - I repeat - there are 2 schools of thought here .

Each person makes their own decision

Yes I agree but that's not my point.

It's seems that you're making the assumption with your story that the lens would have survived the fall if it had an UV filter.
I'm just saying that I'm very sceptical that an UV filter would have make a difference when you let a lens fall.
I could have read your story wrong and my apologies for that if that happened but still the core stays the same what I'm trying to say.

I'm not trying to discuss if you should or should not use a lens filter for protection, that's up to you to make like you said.