Hoya Skylight 1B filter - useful??

chenick · 06-01-2004

I've just received by Olympus 35 SP, and it came with a Hoya Skylight 1B filter.

Will it be OK to leave this on all the time or will it affect low light shots?

Will it affect aperture at all? (Taking into consideration that the meter is separate from the lens barrel)

Cheers,

Nick

pvdhaar · 06-01-2004

Hi Nick,

trouble with UV and Skylights is that you can't really tell without trying what the combined effect is of the filter, the lens (especially the transmission properties of the coatings) and the film of choice.

A perfect skylight filter should take away only the light at the upper end of the visible spectrum, and therefore not require any modification of exposure (shutter and/or aperture). In the real world, you'll find things less perfect, and you may have to up the exposure with half a stop to avoid underexposure.

Leaving a skylight on the lens all the time is possible -as it is with a UV filter- but only if it's perfectly clean and there's no bright light source shining onto the filter surface. Otherwise you'll have ghosts and flare ruining your pictures. My personal approach is to leave them off, and only use them when called for (mountains, snow, seeside in blasting sun..).

rover · 06-01-2004

I use skylight filters as Peter does. If I am shooting mid-day only, just to warm things up a tinge.

DickS · 06-01-2004

If the filter accomplishes something you want to accomplish, then use it. If not, why bother with it?

It might affect the correct exposure, especially if you are shooting slide film. Try it and find out.

Dick

Kris · 06-01-2004

Nick, I also just received an Olympus SP. Gonna try shooting with it this weekend.

I did try shooting the same scene with and without Skylight 1B with Elitechrome 100 film; a slide film. Guess what, since I didn't take note which shot was done with/without the filter, when I had the film developed about 2 weeks later, I couldn't tell the difference!

If you buy a good 1B or UV filter, you don't need to worry about ghost image when pointing the lens towards the sun or other bright light source. Here's a few of (aestheticaly bad) shots with Hoya HMC 1B attached. The second photo was shot without any lenshood at all.