What filters to start out with?

[Irie Times]

I was curious what filters are the essencials to start out with and where to go from them?

Here is what I was thinking but maybe someone can let me know if I am off base or what else I might need.

1) Protective filters for lenses I beleive they are calld Skylight filters, however I may be wrong.

2)Circular UV filter

Where do you go from there? or is that even where you start?

As always thanks for the help.

Side note, I bought a Speedlight 420ex flash yesterday and it is amazing the difference it makes, here is a shot I took messing around with it last night.

[Irie Times]

Here it is

[Sebastian]

None. Just take pictures.

[another view]

2)Circular UV filter

Agree with Seb (again...) but maybe you mean a Circular Polarizer. This might be handy at some point, but not necessary when you're starting out. There's a big debate whether or not to use protective UV or skylight filters (I never do unless it's really bad weather), but if you do use them pick UV filters. Skylight has a pinkish cast to it that's supposed to warm up overcast day light. If you're shooting negative film, the lab will print whatever they want anyway - and with digital, setting white balance will correct that problem anyway.

Get a lens hood, though.

[Sebastian]

Agree with Seb (again...) but maybe you mean a Circular Polarizer. This might be handy at some point, but not necessary when you're starting out. There's a big debate whether or not to use protective UV or skylight filters (I never do unless it's really bad weather), but if you do use them pick UV filters. Skylight has a pinkish cast to it that's supposed to warm up overcast day light. If you're shooting negative film, the lab will print whatever they want anyway - and with digital, setting white balance will correct that problem anyway.

Get a lens hood, though.

If you shoot nature, polarizer can be a great addition, cuts or amplifies reflections on water, foliage, etc. That being said, I have used my polarizer less than ten times in the four years I have owned it. I do use UV filters when it's raining, as it's the only way to keep water out of lenses, even though the rest is weather sealed, the fornt elements are not. Any other time they are free of any filters.

The whole thing with UV filters is ridiculous IMO, a filter will not protect a lens. If you drop a lens, the front element will not prevent things from falling out of alignment, it will not protect it from seizing the focus ro zoom rings, it will not protect the camera from tearing the lens mount off. The only thing that WILL, without a doubt, happen is the filter will break. And everyone tries to say "well the filter is cracked, so it protected the lens!!" That argument doesn't take into account the fact that a threaded fitler on the front of a lens is essentially a sheet of glass loosely mounted in a ring, a design that will easily crack with little stress. It is highly unlikely that it gave up its life to save the lens, and it is highly likely that it made no difference whatsoever in the status of the lens when it met with the concrete.

Use a hood. If the lens is expensive enough to require a protective front element, the lens will have a built-in one that is counted in the optical formula. Most long primes have a (relatively) cheap front element made of high-quality glass, so if something does fly at it it only costs a couple hundred bucks to fix instead of a grand.

The UV filter crowd is trying to prtoect against the most unlikely of threats, something hitting the front element. The real danger lies in dropping the thing, or getting it waterlogged, or worse yet, stolen. Save the money and put it towards equipment insurance.

[Irie Times]

Your argument's makes alot of sense, thanks for your inputs.

[Jeff82]

Seb,

I never really thought of it that way --and I don't use protective filters usually anyway, but you make a very intelligent argument.

--Jeff

[Outdoorsman]

What others are saying is accurate, but there's a little more that could be said. I've tried leaving a UV or haze filter on the lens and I've tried shooting without one, and I must say, there is such a small difference, none of your friends and relatives will know. The Tiffen HAZE-1 gets good ratings for cutting through haze, but I don't see much difference with mine.
As for lens protection, the only thing you would be protecting is the coating on the front element. If one is quite careless the optical coating can be scratched, as well as the glass itself. So a clear filter in front of it would protect against that. But that's all. As others say, if you drop a lens, the least of your worries would be a little scratch. I had a camera slip off my shoulder last winter (my big coat was slippery I guess) and it landed flat on the bottom of the camera. I looked at the front element, and it was fine. I looked through the viewfinder and it was fine. It wasn't until I looked into the lens that I saw an internal element shattered about halfway around the edge. I hate that feeling...
So a filter isn't magic protection- it's just a little insurance against front element scratches.
For a beginner, sure, try a UV/skylight/haze, you might like it. For really cutting through haze in landscape shots, try a circular polarizer. It also does nice things to washed-out blue skies. But be careful- you can turn the sky too blue, especially at higher altitudes and when underexposing.
Also, depending on your level of experience, you might like an 81-series warming filter to punch up drab scenes and get rid of the bluish cast landscapes can have. If you're a film user, you also might want to see if your preferred slide film has a color bias to it. Fuji Velvia and Provia (any others?) are notoriously blue, so a warming filter is often a must. Some say the Kodak E100VS is reddish or brownish, depending on who you talk to.
The basic thing to remember is that when you attach a filter, you are putting something in front of the lens that may or may not be of the highest optical quality. A crappy non-glass filter could degrade your image, while a very expensive pro model shouldn't affect the resolution. Also, be careful not to stack filters- or at least not too many! You will vingette the image.
The filter world is large, and only you will know what you prefer with experience. I use only UV/haze and a circular polarizer- maybe I'll get a warming filter soon, but I'm in no hurry.
Good luck!