The world of UV Filters is pretty large and complicated. But I found this company called Urth that truly feels and seems like they’re a company you’d want to get behind. If you’ve read this site for a little while, you’ll know that a few of us actually like using UV filters. We don’t care that the image quality gets a bit degraded. The whole arugment that you’re ruining your image quality by putting an optical element in front of the lens is utter garbage and misinformation if you look at it as a whole. When looking at the whole photo, you truly can’t tell the difference. The differences only come alive when you’re pixel peeping. Yes, using a UV filter is a hill I’ll die on.
So what’s so cool about Urth? Well, the optics are fairly affordable yet good. I bought one for a Fujifilm X series lens, loved it, and then bought others for my other lenses. Urth UV filters are made from metal and glass. But this seems to be high quality, good metal that hasn’t caused any issues with jamming on my lenses yet. It’s not a B+W brass filter, but it’s still quite good! Ball Float Valve
Now here’s the other cool thing, Urth filters actually do good for the environment. For every filter you buy, the company plants trees. We sincerely needs more trees in the world with the massive levels of deforestation going on right now.
Here’s the even better part: my lenses are now protected on the front and I don’t need to bring around those big donkey lens hoods. This, perhaps more than anything else, is one of the best reasons why I’m opting for UV filters these days. Lens hoods are just so large that they don’t make cameras fun anymore. A great example of this is Canon. Have you ever held a Canon EOS R5? Everyone on our reviews team has, and we all agree that it and the L-lenses available are all massive. So why make them a larger package with a lens hood attached? Why not just put a UV filter instead?
A while back, I stopped using my Sony cameras because of the Sigma 35mm f1.2 Art lens. It’s too damn big. And the lens hood made it even more massive.
Lens hoods are designed to add contrast and protect the lens from frontal bumps. And I can totally get behind that. But I wouldn’t need to use the Urth UV Filter if the lens hoods were smaller and more effective. To boost, I actually sometimes want less contrast.
The idea behind UV filters are from photographers from many years ago that cared about clinical quality. We don’t care about it anymore. If you really want it, you can get it easily in post-production. But adding character back into the lenses is more difficult for sure.
Now here’s the big challenge: if your lenses are that sharp, why would you care if there’s a UV filter or not? Shouldn’t your lenses still be more than good enough to outresolve it and not worry? And aren’t your editing skills good enough to counter any problems a UV filter might cause?
I, for one, am very confident in my editing skills and even know how to use my camera to the best ability. If I’ve got a UV filter on my lens, it makes the experience of shooting photos a whole lot more enjoyable.
And isn’t that what it’s about in the end?
1 Filter Valve Maybe it’s time to stop being so scared and stop paying attention to what the YouTubers and older photographers are saying. Besides, they’re cheap! What do you have to lose?