What Digital SLR Lens Filter Do You Need?
Trying to find a digital SLR lens filter probably feels like the last straw.
- First you had to pick your digital SLR camera
- Then you had to find the right lens for it
Now there's something that you stick in front of the lens? Where does it end?
Let me put it this way: digital SLR camera filters really aren't required, and you'll be able to take photos just fine without them.
But several of them are nice to have, and will improve the quality of your photos when you're faced with challenging light.
Filter Sizes
The most important thing to figure out when you're looking for a digital SLR camera filter is the filter size.
How do you determine this?
Take the lens cap off your lens and look at the back of it.
There should be a number in millimeters imprinted on the back of the lens cap: that's the size of the digital SLR camera filter that you need.
Depending on the type of lens you have, this number can range anywhere from about 50mm to 80mm.
The size of the filter that you get must match the diameter of your lens, since the filter will screw onto the front of the lens.
Filters For Multiple Lenses
If every filter is matched to a lens size, what do you do when you have two different size lenses?
Are you stuck getting double the number of digital SLR camera filters?
Not exactly: there's a trick.
Find out which lens has the largest diameter. Let's say that your large lens has a diameter of 62mm, while your smaller lens is only 52mm.
First, purchase any digital SLR camera filters you want in the 62mm size.
Then get a 52mm to 62mm step-up adapter ring.
The step-up ring lets you use all of the 62mm filters on your 52mm lens. It's an adapter that converts from the smaller size to the larger one.
You can find a complete assortment of step-up adapter rings at Adorama.
Types of Filters
First, let me say this: there are hundreds of digital SLR camera filters.
You can find a lens filter to create just about any kind of effect you want: fog, soft focus, starburst, color tone, kaleidescope...the list goes on and on.
These all fall under the category of "special effect filters".
While these filters were useful for film cameras, every single one of these special effects can be added to your digital photos with a program like Adobe Elements.
While you are more than welcome to get some special effect filters and see what they do, I'm not going to talk about them in detail here.
Instead, I'd like to focus on the 4 most common digital SLR camera filters.
These filters all have more practical uses than the ones used for special effects.
UV Filter
A UV filter acts as an insurance policy for you lens.
Polarizing Filter
Don't want a lot of glare in your landscape photos? A polarizer is what you need.
Neutral Density
If you want less light to enter the camera lens, then a neutral density filter can help.
Warming Filter
Warming filters add glow to skin tones and colors.
 Camera Cases |
Digital SLR Home | UV Filter |
