Hama or Hoya Filters?

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Bes

Bes

Bes

Soldato
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Hi

I am looking to pick up 77mm circular polarisers and UV filters for my Sigma 10-20mm.

I have found the 2 Hoya ones for a total of £51.98.

I have also found the Hama Circular Polarising Filter, UV, & Skylight filters for £33 for the three.

Which is the best lot to get?

Thanks
 
Not sure about which is best, I'd imagine they're fairly similar, although the HAMA one's do sound a little cheap. You generally get what you pay for. And someone will always bring up the point 'don't put £10 glass in front on £200 glass'. I personally don't bother with UV filters for this reason.

Anyway,
I just wanted to point out that CPL are also UV filters.
 
Yes I know, but there are plenty of times when I want to shoot but not have the effect of the CPL on there. The UV filter will be useful during such times to protect the glass.
 
why get UV AND skylight?, i have a skylight on the front of my 24-105 to keep it protected, i got it half price when i bought the lens. I'd recommend a CP from the Hoya Pro range, you can get them for about £50 on the bay (import) and they retail for a little over £100 here in the UK. Thats the route i'm going to take anyway.

I got the price wrong for the CP - it's actually £117 for the 77mm hoya pro filter :D
 
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Yes the filters are a set.

Is the pro Hoya worth the difference over the standard? as it is double the price, even when importing.

Thanks
 
the pro version is only 3mm thick and is made better and optically better and deflects glare /haze better than a standard filter. Some say, there's no point spending hundreds on a lens then sticking a cheap piece of glass on the front as remember, your lens is so expensive because of the way you lens is engineered/ developed. I personally am happy with my standard hoya skylight filter on the front of my 24-105 (until i can afford to spend £117 on a filter anyway lol)
 
Even a cheapo one has got to be better than not having one at all? You'd be very upset if you somehow scuffed/scratched the new lens you have just invested several hundred pounds on. I put a UV lens on all my lens and leave it on. I have founf the Hoya ones are really good. I am not sure how good the pro ones are over the 'green' or 'red' ones (by green and red, I believe Hoya do several ranges of filters ranging in price) :)
 
martinturner said:
Even a cheapo one has got to be better than not having one at all? You'd be very upset if you somehow scuffed/scratched the new lens you have just invested several hundred pounds on. I put a UV lens on all my lens and leave it on. I have founf the Hoya ones are really good. I am not sure how good the pro ones are over the 'green' or 'red' ones (by green and red, I believe Hoya do several ranges of filters ranging in price) :)
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What do you people do with your lenses?! I've never used filters on any of my lenses. I know the same argument comes up every time but where your saying you want to protect something you have just spent several hundreds of pounds on, then same question can be asked why would you want to put a very cheap bit of glass on the front of your optically superior front element! It crazy. You might as well just buy a cheap lens instead and save the money rather than buy a more expensive one and then reduce its quality with cheap glass stuck on the front.

Just be careful with your stuff people!! Its really not difficult to protect your equipment just using the lens hood.

My 200-400 (and all long Nikon glass) only take drop in filters at the back so the front element can't be covered. What would all you 'must have filter for protection' people do then? Never use the lens! lol. If it was that easy to damage the front element Nikon would be making huge filters for those lenses...but they don't...
 
But still, so often pictures are ruined by the kind of what I believe to be a UV haze or polarised light... Surely THAT is the point of a filter?

Anyway the cheap glass argument... A filter is a piece of glass at ~£50- a lens is several pieces of glass, an AF motor, body, etc etc etc and therefore the 10x cost over the filter is justified surely? so is the glass the filter is made of really any worse?
 
CP filters are worth using when there is a lot of glare/bright light. But UV filters are pretty much useless. I used to be a filter user. Then one day I took the filters off to see what the difference was like and my images were instantly clearer and more contrasty.

The glass in the element is designed to work at its optimum with all the other elemnts in the lens. A cheapo filter isn't.

£50+ filters will be better optically but your talking about ones that are 2 or even 3 for £50! Thats some seriously cheap and eferior glass.

At the end of the day, I'm just trying to save people money and preserve better image quality. Far be it from me to stop someone spending their money on giving their lenses and inferior image quality though.
If you had a £1500 pro lens would you put a £15 filter on the front of it?

Spend spend spend...cheap filters are amazing, well worth the money...
 
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I appreciate your comments SP.

I am a newbie to this, so just want to make sure I cover everything...

Perhaps I should just get the Hoya cp then and be done with it.

Thanks
 
Ok thanks.. After reading this thread, I think I will probably strech to the Hoya Pro, as for £25 or so extra, it's probably worth it in the long run over the standard one

Thanks again!
 
If people carry their babies without any extra protection in case they hit them against something ie, they are just careful, then the front element of your lens can do with the protection of a lens hood and thats it.

A UV/Haze/Skylight filter does no other job nowadays because the coatings on lenses are superior to what they used to be when those filters were useful. In those days, since you pretty much had to add the filter to avoid haze, etc, you might aswell keep it on all the time, and hence the 'to protect the lens' habit was born.
 
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