Why you need a UV filter on every camera lens you own

Broken UV filter

Camera lenses don’t come cheap. Even if you buy one from the bottom end of the range it is likely to set you back about a hundred quid at the very least. Once you start hitting the mid range lenses you are talking a few hundred and at the top of the range you are talking quite a few thousand.

That is a lot of money to spend on a piece of essential kit that can be easily scratched, dropped or broken, especially if you are prone to the odd case of butterfingers.

Protect your lenses with a UV filter

One thing that most experienced photographers suggest you purchase at the same time as a lens is a UV filter – this is mainly because a UV filter stops haze getting through the lens to the final image, but it also protects the lens from scratches and other damage.

I have followed this advice religiously.

Sunday morning blues

Recently, I bought a new lens for my Canon EOS 40D. It was the Canon 75-300mm III USM and it cost £350.00 from Calumet. On the first Sunday morning after buying it I decided to get up early and head out to see what it could do. I got up in the dark and had my usual cup of tea before making my final equipment checks. Everything was in my bag so I was good to go.

However, what I didn’t do was zip up the bag. Instead, I left it open and as I went to lift it from the kitchen table my new lens slipped out of the open end and fell onto the tiled floor. I could see splinters of glass on the floor and I feared the worst.

I picked up the lens and looked closely. It looked like it was just the fliter that was smashed and not the lens. The filter ring was damaged so I couldn’t unscrew the it from the lens. I managed to removed most of the bigger pieces of glass, and tried a little more to remove the filter. After a while I decided to stop in case I damaged the lens, or the shards of glass scratched it.

Monday morning came and I phoned Calumet in Manchester. They told me to bring the lens in on Friday and they would have a look and try and to fix it for me. I took the lens in on Friday and for the princely sum of 30 odd pounds they fixed it for me. The lens was not damaged in any way. The UV filter had taken the brunt of the shock and had protected the lens just how the experts said it would.

I can look back at this event now and tell the story quite lightheartedly, but the day it happened I was the grumpiest person alive. When the lens hit the floor I used every expletive I could think of. I guess most of my anger was directed at myself for making such a stupid (and possibley expensive) mistake.