My take on the use of UV filters

[Steve Axford]

I had a volcano spit acid onto my 14mm lens. The acid stripped the coating off. Still, a filter wouldn't have helped because there aren't filters for that lens. Oh well, I guess the moral is - don't annoy volcanoes and make them spit.

[rodw]

I had a volcano spit acid onto my 14mm lens. The acid stripped the coating off. Still, a filter wouldn't have helped because there aren't filters for that lens. Oh well, I guess the moral is - don't annoy volcanoes and make them spit.

If it stripped the lens coating off, what did it do to the people coating?

I think there is now a special filter holder for it, Not from Nikon though but it would let you join the "naughty" filter club

[Steve Axford]

Oddly enough, sulphuric acid doesn't hurt skin very much. Eyes and cuts it can sting a bit, but lens coatings don't hold up very well. Nitric acid, on the other hand, tends to form nitro-skin, which could be explosive in the same way that nitrocellulose is. But they did use that for film, didn't they. Though it did produce a few fires and the odd explosion when they used it for billiard balls.

[extraball]

this week the UV filter comes off the Tamron lens, if the pics look better.......it will stay off.

[extraball]

Didn't need a week to confirm, that my UV filter is having a negative impact on my photos. Been using my Tamron SP70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di VC USD with a UV filter from day dot, thinking I was doing a good thing. Last few days shooting, without that "UV frisbee", and my shots are coming straight out of the camera with very good definition, and hardly needing any sharpening. With the UV I was pushing the sharpening sliders quite alot. Below examples are shots straight out the camera/no processing at all (canon 1100D). I can now crop the images heavily, and still keep good definition without sharpening. Big thanks to this thread, and the OP!



cropped (wish this guy had of moved into a better spot, he spooked even at a distance, and flew-away)