I made a visit to my local camera store in LA trying to buy a "protective" lens for my new digital camera. The salesman advised to buy "UV" over "Skylight" for digital cameras because they had some kind of advantage, although he couldn't remember exactly why. If you were in the market for a new filter for "primarily protection purposes" for a lens on a digital camera, what is the prevailing opinion on which to buy? And I assume you want to buy the best piece of glass you can get (something in the $50-$70 price range vs. $30) if you'll be leaving it on the camera all the time...any thoughts? John

I made a visit to my local camera store in LA trying to buy a "protective" lens for my new digital camera. The salesman advised to buy "UV" over "Skylight" for digital cameras because they had some kind of advantage, although he couldn't remember exactly why. If you were in the market for a new filter for "primarily protection purposes" for a lens on a digital camera, what is the prevailing opinion on which to buy? And I assume you want to buy the best piece of glass you can get (something in the $50-$70 price range vs. $30) if you'll be leaving it on the camera all the time...any thoughts? John

You'll be fine with either one. The skylights were originally developed to get rid of a tiny bit of extra blue that appeared in photographs taken at altitude. They do have a slight color cast but it is very minor, your auto WB will easily compensate.

Yes, buy the very best filter. All filters degrade the image, the idea is to reduce that degradation as much as possible. I would also read the other current filter thread in the Help forum that has filter-on/filter-off examples that might surprise you.

The more glass between your sensor and the subject, the worse off you are, and I'd say the protective value of UV filters is tenuous at best. Maybe if you are shooting in a sandstorm or something...

A camera salesman that doesn't know the difference between a UV and Skylight? Hmm...

As long as you use Auto White Balance on your digital camera, there really won't be any difference between the two. Auto WB will take the pinkish color of the Skylight filter into account when it measures white balance, essentially filtering out that color. A UV filter is clear. The resulting image, as long as you're using Auto WB, will look the same with either filter (theoretically, anyway - there may be a very slight difference that's not enough to worry about).

I rarely use these filters myself. I only use them if I'm out in the rain, a windy day around sand, etc. Even then I don't use them all the time, and they're not often even in my camera bag. Problem is, like stated above, more glass surfaces can give you flare problems.

I use lens hoods all the time. They're designed to cut lens flare but also will give the lens a little physical protection. This might be a better option in most cases.