Image quality purists will tell you otherwise, but this is why I use a UV filter on all of my lenses

It never ceases to amaze me how lens manufacturers are able to bring out sharper optics with every year that passes. If you’ll excuse the pun, there’s been a ‘focus’ on sharpness in recent times, perhaps exacerbated by social media where you can pinch to zoom in on images to check precisely how pinsharp they are.

We’re always told that putting anything in front of the lens, or behind in the case of teleconverters, will degrade image quality. It’s just physics, right? Putting extra glass in the way of the light getting from your lens to the camera’s sensor has to have an impact on image quality, surely.

So you may be surprised to hear that I use UV filters on all of my expensive lenses, and it doesn’t have anything with the UV filter’s ability to reduce the invisible ultraviolet light coming in through the lens, either. More than any other reason it’s to protect the front element of the lens.

Read more: The best UV filters

You can bet your bottom dollar that on lenses like my Canon RF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM which cost close to three thousand dollars, I’m using one of the best UV filters to protect its front element. This is because the front glass element of lenses are particularly exposed and vulnerable to scratches or breakages if dropped – worse case scenario if my lens gets pranged or dropped, hopefully my lens hood and UV filter in tandem should take the brunt of the damage and save me from an expensive front element repair.

There’s two costs when it comes to adding a UV filter. Firstly, there’s the physical cost to your wallet – I like to use premium ones like the K&F Concept Nano-X UV MC Series is my preferred UV filter of choice – it pays to get a quality filter as I honestly can’t see a degradation of image quality with this filter attached, although you do sometimes get a little extra flare when shooting towards a light source due to the light bouncing off this extra glass surface.

Secondly, there’s the cost of image quality which occurs when extra glass is introduced into the equation – though this is why I think it makes sense to buy a quality UV filter as I’m sure you’d be more likely to see worse image quality and softer details with a very budget UV filter that costs just a few dollars.

I don’t just use UV filters on my expensive lenses though, I’ve gotten into the habit of using them on all my optics to add a bit of extra protection. Keeping the lens in tip top condition also helps you maintain its value if you resell it later on too, which is something I do fairly regularly.

My top tips when buying a UV filter are to not scrimp and get a decent high quality filter and check that it’s the correct filter thread size for your lens – this is usually found on the inside of the front lens cap. Keep the filter on for general day to day use and carefully remove and put away in a hard case if you need to use other filters such as a square filter holder system, but screw it back in place when you’re finished so you’re protected once again.

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