Hood, Filters etc....

[Mintybaby]

Hi everyone,

I am now the proud possessor of my first DSLR (Nikon D3300 with the Nikkor 18-55mm VR II Lens Kit lens).

I am reasonably new to photography but want to push on and get involved, and am planning to hopefully make a flying start on my forthcoming six week trip to Australia in March/April.

I have a couple of questions. Would I/my camera benefit from a hood and any kind of filter UV/or otherwise?

I read something in the manual about direct sunlight entering the ens might damage the camera, and obviously the sunlight out there is a lot different to the UK. And obviously I wouldn't want said hood/filter to compromise any image quality.

So any advice would be really appreciated. Ditto pointers to any other products/accessories I might need :0

Kind regards

Ginny

[Shadowman]

Hi Ginny and welcome to the forum.

With only one lens it wouldn't hurt to try the UV filter. I use them on almost all of my lenses except the macro lens which I rarely take outside. I feel more comfortable with it on, it helps keeping the glass clean, and doesn't interfere with any of my captures. I did an outdoor winter shoot in freezing conditions while standing next to Niagara Falls and was awfully glad I had the filter on; took quite a bit or work keeping the frost from building up on the glass.

Regarding the lens hood, it's always good to use it; just be careful as it can also be a hindrance depending on how it's constructed. Mine lens hood is constantly getting caught on or scraped against some object or surface.

Looking forward to seeing some of your captures.

[NorthernFocus]

Hi, Ginny. Yes your trip down under should provide you many opportunities to jump into the deep end of the photography pool.

Purely from a standpoint of capturing images, in the digital world the only truly useful filters are polarizers, neutral density, and special effects like star filters. Warming filters and even graduated ND have gone the way of the dodo due to what can now be done in post processing. For your trip a circular polarizer would certainly be useful.

Regarding the lens hood, yes use it. It does double duty to protect your glass and helps avoid lens flare in some situations.

I've never heard of sensor damage due to sunlight. It may be theoretically possible but from a practical standpoint must not be a concern. Heavens knows I've shot a lot of images with the sun in the frame and never damaged a camera.

The subject of UV filters is one of those philosophical things that typically causes endless discussion/argument among photographers, CIC membership included. You either believe or you don't. No doubt they provide another layer of protection from impact damage albeit somewhat redundant if one uses the lens hood. On the other hand, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me to spend time and money researching and purchasing high quality lenses and then sticking a (typically) much lower quality piece of glass on the end. I suppose the way to sum it up is that if your priority is to protect your gear, then UV and/or ultraclear filters make sense. If your priority is optimizing image quality, they don't make sense. I know quite a few professional photographers with tens of thousands of dollars worth of lenses and have never seen one of them use a protective filter.

Enjoy your trip and we'll look forward to seeing some of the results

[Manfred M]

Hi Ginny - welcome to CiC. The lens you have does not ship with a lens hood, so you could either buy a third party one or get Nikon's HB-69 hood that is designed for this lens. The problem with lens hoods on a lens with as wide an angle as yours is that you can get vignetting (the hood actually getting into the edge of the image), so I would tempt to go with the Nikon as it should be correctly sized for your lens. It will help prevent flare by preventing light from the side hitting the lens; on the other hand adding flare is sometimes desirable compositionally. I own the older version of this lens and have never bothered with a hood. I just use my hand to act as a shield in situations where I see flare.

Filters are a bit of a tricky issue. Any clear filter (including the UV ones) can protect your lens, but the cheaper ones do not have an anti-reflective coating and these will actually cause image deterioration / increased flare. Only you can decide if you want to spend the money for a decent quality filter. I would suggest you are just throwing money away if you go for a cheap filter.

The only warning I will give you about the lens is that its plastic lens mount is the weakest part of the lens and if you bang it too hard or the camera falls over, you can strip the lens mount, which means the lens has to be replaced (it's cheaper than having it fixed).

[dem]

Ditto pointers to any other products/accessories I might need :0

Have to warn you that this is a very slippery slope. First you get a UV filter to protect the front element, then you get a polariser to remove reflections and darken the sky, then you get some neutral density filters for long exposure with some graduate ND filters thrown in for good measure, then you get a couple of close up filters just to try, soft focus filters, star filters, IR filters... the list goes on.

Oh, the same thing happens with lenses, except it is much much more expensive.

Welcome to the forum.

[rpcrowe]

I always use a lens hood both indoors and outside. The hood protects my lens from both flare and from physical damage.

I have UV filters for my lenses but, only use them when I am in locations which could be detrimental to the front element - salt spray, etc. The hood provides protection under normal situations...

I have CPL filters for my lenses and use them quite frequently to reduce reflections and to darken the sky; accentuating the clouds.

All my filters are excellent quality as are my lenses.

[DanK]

I often use protective filters, but you can save money by buying a simple protective filter rather than a UV filter, as the UV filtration is of no use with digital cameras. However, I want to echo what Manfred wrote: If you are going to use filters (of any kind), you will have degradation of the image unless you buy good multicoated ones.

[jcuknz]

Missing from your query is the question of a camera bag ... all my cameras have their own bags and live in them except for when actually taking photos. Likewise most if not all my cameras have lens-hood and the 'usual' lens they carry the lens hood is a permanent fixture for reasons of protection ... even to the extent of mutilating the case which the camera came in so the hood could be a permanent fixture.... in my usual DIY way I added a supermarket pottle which was the right size.

The other item not mentioned is what editing programme you have or aim to get ... because the editor is as important as the camera to a serious photographer though fortunately even the better ones cost much less than the camera gear
My choice was Paint Shop Pro but if you are a younger person with perhaps even vague ideas of joining the industry you would better going the Adobe way. Remember that any editor worth having will have a steep learning curve but will when you are familiar with it bring real benefits to your work.

[RobFellows]

Hi Ginny,

Whack a UV filter on, forget the hood for that little lens. Hoya, B&W, whatever brand your local shop has will be fine.

You will be either on the coast with sea spray or in the desert with sand and flies so a filter will keep the front element clean and you won't feel so bad cleaning a UV filter with a t-shirt or the like while out and about.

Have fun shooting and don't worry too much about the kit, it isn't made of Waterford crystal and can take a fair bit of abuse.