There are a lot of camera accessories out there. Even the humble compact cameras can cause headaches when you go about looking for accessories. What camera bag do you want to use? Do you want to replace the hand strap? What should be the speed of the memory card that will enable you to take advantage of the rated image-captured-per-second?
Move up to the world of DSLR and you'd need a pain reliever for that headache. But, after the camera bag, there is one thing that I think should be a mandatory DSLR accessory - the UV lens filter.
The UV lens filter just sits in front of the lens. It doesn't affect the color of the picture nor does it cause a reduction in the amount of light. But more so, the UV filter can greatly protect the front of your "glass".
Whenever I'm in a shoot, I remove the front lens cap and just throw it in my bag. I don't want to hold on to it because I might lose it in the process and I don't want to put it in the back pocket of my pants because I might forget that it's there and I might sit on it. So, from location to location, my lens has no lens cap on - when I transfer to another spot, I just put my camera hanging on my side, via the very useful Blackrapid RS5, or I'll just throw it in my Tenba bag until I need it again.
Move up to the world of DSLR and you'd need a pain reliever for that headache. But, after the camera bag, there is one thing that I think should be a mandatory DSLR accessory - the UV lens filter.
The UV lens filter just sits in front of the lens. It doesn't affect the color of the picture nor does it cause a reduction in the amount of light. But more so, the UV filter can greatly protect the front of your "glass".
Whenever I'm in a shoot, I remove the front lens cap and just throw it in my bag. I don't want to hold on to it because I might lose it in the process and I don't want to put it in the back pocket of my pants because I might forget that it's there and I might sit on it. So, from location to location, my lens has no lens cap on - when I transfer to another spot, I just put my camera hanging on my side, via the very useful Blackrapid RS5, or I'll just throw it in my Tenba bag until I need it again.
So, for me, after buying a very good bag, the absolute next purchase is a UV lens filter
. It will protect the front of your lens from scratches, a slight dusting of rain, dust and sand. It's better to have your filter scratched rather than your expensive lens. And since the UV filter is not colored, it will not affect the hue of your pictures.
. It will protect the front of your lens from scratches, a slight dusting of rain, dust and sand. It's better to have your filter scratched rather than your expensive lens. And since the UV filter is not colored, it will not affect the hue of your pictures.There are some cons about using a filter though. There is a saying I read somewhere that a thousand dollar lens with a ten dollar filter is equivalent to a ten dollar lens. There is some truth to that... A cheap filter will cast flare on your shots, some can cause ghosting, while others will flat out degrade the image quality. So, a multi-coated lens filter should cure some of these ails. For the flare, well, I think the best solution for that is a lens hood.
The protection offered by a UV filter, in my very humble opinion, is worth its weight in gold. Wanna know what happens when a solid object hits your lens and you don't have a filter? Check out this link from Gizmodo. And yeah, I do miss baseball and the Yankees...
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| Wouldn't you know it? The filter I am using is made from the Philippines... :) |
Canon 24-105 4.0 is one of my favorite lenses!!!
ReplyDeleteI have Scott Bourne to thank for that. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm glad to be of some help. And thanks for subscribing to my posts. :)
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