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Kamil Wawrzyszko
Pentaxian
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There is a school of thoughts that don’t believe in using any filters on DSLR lenses. The claim is that adding another piece of glass or resin in front of a lens becomes another layer that the light has to pass through. Could a lens with a filter not give as good rendition as a lens without a filter?
In my opinion, one has to consider the type of filter(s) and the quality of the filter(s) used. You can’t expect quality by adding a $10.00 filter in front of a $1,000.00 lens. However, you can certainly expect quality when adding a top-of-the-line filter in front of the same lens. Of course, it also depends on what filter you want to use.
In the Black and White film era, filters were very useful in that they would amplify the different tones and saturation. For example, using a red filter with B&W film, a blue sky gets darker and the clouds appears to be whiter. A deep green filter lighten the green trees and vegetation, and produces a more natural sky.
Now that we shoot mostly with DSLRS, the game has changed a little as PhotoShop and other software can emulate filter effects. Adding filter effects in post-processing is great to fix a picture that would otherwise look bland. You should always try to take a picture with all the tools and settings necessary to make it a great picture, before post-processing, not after. That includes setting the proper white balance, using fill flash when necessary, using polarizing or neutral density filters, etc.
I personally don’t like to put a filter in front of my lenses, such as a UV filter, with the single intention of protecting the glass from damages. I have heard all my life that a filter is a cheap and great protection in case something hit the front element. I my many decades of photography, I have never broken or scratched any of my lenses, and I had a few in my life.
That said, there are two types of filters I use very often. The CPL filter (circular polarizing ) and the ND filters (neutral density). Here’s why.
CPL Filter:
A CPL filter is the most important filter of them all. PL (Linear Polarizing filter) and CPL filters have the same effect, but it is important that you choose the correct one for your camera. Today’s DSLRs use semi-silvered mirrors or prisms to split the light entering the viewfinder in order to calculate exposure and focusing distance. PL filters can sometimes interact with these items to give unpredictable exposure or focusing. So CPL filters are used on most modern DLSRs, unless you have a manual focus camera which has no beam splitter.
Firstly, a CPL will protect the front element if you have a tendency of banging things around.
Secondly, light rays which are reflected by any surface become polarized and polarizing filters are used to select which light rays enter your camera lens. They allow you to remove unwanted reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as water, glass etc. They also enable colors to become more saturated and appear clearer, with better contrast. This effect is often used to increase the contrast and saturation in blue skies and white clouds. The high quality HOYA filters do not affect the overall color balance.
I always have a CPL in front of each lens attached to my DSLR. I take it off only when shooting in poor light conditions and when it’s impractical to use a tripod, or flash.
Neutral Density Filters:
ND filters are often ignored by photographers, but they have several uses and offer the possibility of capturing images, that otherwise would be unattainable. ND filters appear grey and reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor. They do not change color balance. They come in several intensity and several filters can be stacked to achieve the desired light restriction. The usual configurations are ND2, ND4 and ND8.
They allow the use of slow shutter speeds, even in broad daylight, to record movement in subjects such as waterfalls, clouds, etc. They are also a great tool to decrease the depth of field by allowing wider apertures to be used.
Graduated Neutral Density Filters:
The rotating mount allows bright skies to be easily controlled for dramatic effect. With threaded filters, you are forced to make the split between the sky and the landscape, in the halfway point. Cokin and other companies manufacture resin square filters that use a special attachment. They allow you to position the split anywhere you want, but resin will eventually get scratched and does not have the optical quality of glass.
I use Hoya HMC (Hoya Multi-Coated) filters only, and it doesn’t hurt that they are also the owners of Pentax.
Finally, there is one thing that I have to complain about when it comes to filters. I use Pentax DSLRs exclusively and have been using Pentax for many years, even before the advent of the DSLRs. Filter manufacturers produce filters ranging from a diameter of 49mm (DSLR Lenses) to 85mm and beyond. Lenses made by Pentax and other manufacturers are all over the map when it comes to filter sizes. Pentax smaller lenses are mostly 49mm in diameter and the big lenses are mostly 77mm in diameter. I write mostly because they are not all split between those two sizes. It costs a lot of money to purchase filters for all lenses that one owns. There are adapters, but when adapters are used, the lens hoods cannot be used. Why don’t they make their lenses with two filter threads only, 49mm and 77mm. The cost between the intermediate sizes and the 49mm/77mm, would be relatively small. In my camera bag, I now only have lenses with 49mm and 77mm filter threads. I have a set of 49mm filters and a set of 77mm filters. I have started to sell the other lenses that don’t meet my criteria. Eventually, that’s all I will have.
Yvon Bourque
Looking for a wide angle lens for your Pentax or Nikon DSLR?
A perfect way to transform your kit lens into wide angle lens for a quarter of the price is to get the 0.7x wide angle converter. It has 5 star reviews on Amazon UK, and for £70 it’s a real bargain. Those who bought it feel really satisfied with it claiming that the quality of photos is surprisingly high. 
Please, read what the buyers thought:
I have always needed a slightly wider angle than my Pentax K10d’s 18-55mm lens was able to provide, but I was not willing to pay for a Pentax wide angle lens, which costs as much as the camera itself. So when I saw this adaptor, I went for it, and I’m pleased I did; it works very well. There is no vignetting at the corners at the widest angle, which is often a problem with such adaptors, and there is no discernible reduction in photo quality. Of course you do get ‘tombstoning’ when you take photos of buildings with the camera tilted up at an angle, but this is a normal feature of most wide-angle lens. The adaptor lens is 80mm in diameter and 15mm in thickness, as such it is larger than the barrel of the 18-55 lens, but it does not look ridiculous when attached. The adaptor lens comes with its own pouch, proper front lens cap and a rear push-on cap. Perhaps the only ‘con’ of this adaptor is that it’s attached to the camera via the 52mm filter thread and care needs to be taken when attaching it. If you intend to be constantly removing and re-attaching this lens, it could get a bit tiresome; this lens adaptor cannot really be described as ‘quickly detachable’. I myself intend to leave it on most of the time. One ‘pro’ of this adaptor-lens is that it doesn’t take up a lot of room. It will easily fit in a coat pocket or camera bag. I would not hesitate to recommend this adaptor-lens to the photographer on a budget who needs a wider angle photo, but doesn’t want to pay out hundred’s for a wide angle zoom lens.
Or another one:
Like a lot of keen using a DSLR with standard 18-55 mm (kit) lens I began to look at other (in this case wide angle) lenses and was immediately confronted with the high cost of wide angle zooms. Again like many people I was a little taken aback at the cost of the Sigma 10-20 zoom at over £300 even on Amazon.
After a lot of research on the web I came across the Digital King wide angle lens – .7X which is made in Japan and is designed specifically to work with a 18-55 kit lens. It just screws on the front like a filter.
Took the plunge and bought it through Amazon UK although it was supplied by RK Photographic. It arrived 2 days later inside a nifty pouch with draw string and protected by front and back good quality lens caps. Total cost less than £70.00 p&p free. Free 5 year guarantee.
I have to say when I took it out of the box it looked beautiful. Obviously larger in depth and diameter but still light to use. On maximum wide angle of the kit lens (18mm) it becomes a 12.6 approx wide
angle lens. The quality of image using my Nikon D40 is simply superb and I’m sure would easily meet the standards for keen amateurs. It gives a pleasing natural wide angle “distortion” when used closely to objects although less than a fish-eye would but it is still quite dramatic.
It was interesting because when I looked more closely at reviews of this lens in other web forums I was struck by how the most vehemently against this type of lens clearly had not even used one let alone owned one. This is what convinced me to buy the Digital King lens. No-one who owned one had criticized it. It seems to be a result of a certain sort of snobbery: you will only get quality by paying through the nose for it. This in my experience with this lens is complete nonsense.
Instead of paying £310 I paid less than £70.00 for a very useful wide angle – I admit that it doesn’t have the flexibility of a wide angle zoom but with a saving of £240 I’m willing to put up with that and maybe buy that Blu-ray player from Sony that I keep hankering after?
And one more:
After using two slr’s (a Canon film slr and an Olympus dslr) that employed dedicated multi-element wide-angle and telephoto converters and having been pleased with the results, I thought this converter worth trying. Happily my initial experience actually confirms all of its maker’s claims. This attachment has a single glass element specially designed to match a 18-55mm dslr kit lens at its widest setting. My converter is 52mm dia.(for a Pentax K100d) but I believe a 58mm dia. version is also available.
The performance on my camera is excellent. Perhaps not only due to careful design and manufacture but as experience suggests, the less glass added to the front of a good camera lens the better. Being lightweight and compact the convertor slips conveniently into the front pocket of my zoomster camera bag; accessories are no use unless to hand. Other plus points; there’s nothing to go wrong, all camera functions are retained. Also the chance of dust entering the camera is eliminated by using a supplementary lens rather than changing lenses.
Reasonable care is needed screwing it to the host filter ring but my converter spins on and off freely with its milled edge, black crackle barrel providing a secure finger grip. The lens appears to be coated to minimise reflections (its housing is marked MC) and the metal barrel although shallow seems to offer some shading. Toda-Seiko Ltd (Japan) have been making conversion lenses for around 20 years and for all kinds of optical equipment, something I found reassuring.
Not everyone can justify or afford an expensive prime or zoom wide-angle lens but they can enjoy the added fun and interest of creating more dynamic photos. with this converter. My example cost somewhat less than the current widely advertised UK price so do shop around.
Give yourself a bit a luxury for a tiny price. If you always thought about getting a wide angle lens but could not afford, now you can! Click the link below now:
Digital King DSW Pro 0.7x Wide Angle Lens Nikon/Pentax 52mm
Enjoy!!!
