Bob W wrote: BW>There are plenty of filters around that cost a whole lot more than $10- and will not *significantly* degrade the quality of your photographs. By 'significantly' I mean 'to the extent that normal people can see under normal conditions'. Mr. Asahi made some of them."
Maybe so. They're still bothersome and I don't like any more annoyance than I have to put up with when I'm taking pictures. I use polarizers, graduated, enhancing etc on occasion and I don't like to stack them. It takes too long to remove one and put another one on. BW>Another aspect to consider is this: however many cigarettes people stub out on a coated lens, and however many rubber erasers they clean it up with, you can still f_ck up the front element big time in an infinity of unimaginable ways. A filter offers a significant amount of protection. Believe me. I do believe you. I had a 50mm stacked on a 200mm lens attached to my MZ-S. I was trying to take a picture of a drop of water on a blade of grass at the edge of a lake. I was hoping to capture the image of the lake in the drop of water. The quick release on my tripod didn't catch quite right and the whole assembly tipped forward off the tripod and landed with the rear element of the 50mm lens in the mud. I have a very expensive FA 20mm lens that I am extremely careful with because that lens leads with its front element. BW>Finally, the cost of the lens is not simply a function of the cost or quality of the glass. The glass in a $1000- lens may be exactly the same as the glass in a £100- filter. I still don't want the extra piece of glass in the light path. I am very very demanding when it comes to the clarity of my pictures. I don't want to take any chances on unwanted reflections or optical imperfections screwing up a shot that I spend 10 minutes setting up. BW>I never use a lens cap when I'm out shooting. I always do. Without exception. If I didn't then I'd probably use the sacrificial filters and unscrew them everytime I took a picture. It's much easier to snap the lens cap off than it is to unscrew the filter. The lens cap doesn't bother me in the least. It's part of the routine. I always remove it at the same step and I always put it in my back pocket. Tom Reese
