Use of Both UV & Circular Polarizer Filters Concurrently

I have heard conflicting reports about using two filters concurrently. Some say no problem, some say will distory photo. I always keep my UV filter on my EF-S 17-85. It would be nice if I did not have to remove the UV before I attached the polarizer-C. Can I put the Pol-C on top of the UV without degrading output?

Practically, what is the impact of layering these two filters?

Thanks,
Larry

Assuming you are using quality filters, multicoated (on both sides), I doubt that you would notice a degradation of your images from using a good UV0 plus a circular polarizer. There might be some oddball lighting where you'd get a degraded image, but I'd hesitate to speculate on what that might be.

All other things being equal, you won't find that UV0 filters IMPROVE your images, especially not with digital cameras. There are some circumstances where they may degrade the image, such as shots taken in a dark room or when it is dark outside, that could produce artifacts.

Occasionally, an artifact might even be pleasing to the eye; here is a sunrise shot I took in Bryce Canyon Park a few weeks ago:



The squarish light in the right side of the sky with the associated "gaussian" light distribution is clearly artifactual; I think it came from forgetting to take the UV0 filter off my lens that early morning. Nonetheless, I like the effect, so I'm glad I guess, that I forgot to take off the filter. Obviously, a polarizer would have been of no use in taking this shot, but this gives you some idea of the sorts of things that UV type filters can do to images.

In summary, I think it is probably "better" to take the UV0 off before you put on the polarizer, but realizing that a lot of times you either won't have time to do so or it will be inconvenient, then those using UV0 filters can probably "get away with" just putting the polarizer on top in most cases.

ken

larryis1 said:

I have heard conflicting reports about using two filters
concurrently. Some say no problem, some say will distory photo. I
always keep my UV filter on my EF-S 17-85. It would be nice if I
did not have to remove the UV before I attached the polarizer-C.
Can I put the Pol-C on top of the UV without degrading output?

Practically, what is the impact of layering these two filters?

Thanks,
Larry

Click to expand...

--
The Sawtooth Wilderness is the most photogenic place on earth!

larryis1 said:

I have heard conflicting reports about using two filters
concurrently. Some say no problem, some say will distory photo. I
always keep my UV filter on my EF-S 17-85. It would be nice if I
did not have to remove the UV before I attached the polarizer-C.
Can I put the Pol-C on top of the UV without degrading output?

Practically, what is the impact of layering these two filters?

Thanks,
Larry

Click to expand...

There are two issues. Adding any filter will degrade image quality, no matter how good its quality. It therefore makes sense to minimise the number of filters in use at one time, paticularly as a polariser already has two bits of glass in it.

Secondly, most lenses and particularly wide-angle lenses will suffer from vignetting if more than one filter is used at a time. In effect, you are starting to build a"tube" on the end of the lens which will intrude into the edges of the shot and result in dark corners

Steve H.
--

Polarizers can be very hard to separate from other filters, step up rings, and from screw in type lens hoods, even if yoiu are careful not to overtighten. Be prepared with some sort device like a strap wrench or a filter wrench in the case that you can't separate the filters should you use 2 at the same time.

ken

Ken Fox said:

All other things being equal, you won't find that UV0 filters
IMPROVE your images, especially not with digital cameras. There
are some circumstances where they may degrade the image, such as
shots taken in a dark room or when it is dark outside, that could
produce artifacts.

Occasionally, an artifact might even be pleasing to the eye; here
is a sunrise shot I took in Bryce Canyon Park a few weeks ago:



The squarish light in the right side of the sky with the associated
"gaussian" light distribution is clearly artifactual; I think it
came from forgetting to take the UV0 filter off my lens that early
morning. Nonetheless, I like the effect, so I'm glad I guess, that
I forgot to take off the filter. Obviously, a polarizer would have
been of no use in taking this shot, but this gives you some idea of
the sorts of things that UV type filters can do to images.

In summary, I think it is probably "better" to take the UV0 off
before you put on the polarizer, but realizing that a lot of times
you either won't have time to do so or it will be inconvenient,
then those using UV0 filters can probably "get away with" just
putting the polarizer on top in most cases.

ken

larryis1 said:

I have heard conflicting reports about using two filters
concurrently. Some say no problem, some say will distory photo. I
always keep my UV filter on my EF-S 17-85. It would be nice if I
did not have to remove the UV before I attached the polarizer-C.
Can I put the Pol-C on top of the UV without degrading output?

Practically, what is the impact of layering these two filters?

Thanks,
Larry

Click to expand...

--
The Sawtooth Wilderness is the most photogenic place on earth!

Click to expand...

--
The Sawtooth Wilderness is the most photogenic place on earth!

Steve,

What you are saying makes a lot of sense, and I have heard this before when I was in the Olympus forum. I will probalbly error to the side of mitigating adding filters. However, I am interest in the "practical" side of this discussion. From a "practical" perspective has anyone had noticably degraded output due to the stack up of these two filters (generally these would be used in a daytime situations, lots of sun, blue skies, etc.)?

Larry

Steve H said:

larryis1 said:

I have heard conflicting reports about using two filters
concurrently. Some say no problem, some say will distory photo. I
always keep my UV filter on my EF-S 17-85. It would be nice if I
did not have to remove the UV before I attached the polarizer-C.
Can I put the Pol-C on top of the UV without degrading output?

Practically, what is the impact of layering these two filters?

Thanks,
Larry

Click to expand...

There are two issues. Adding any filter will degrade image
quality, no matter how good its quality. It therefore makes sense
to minimise the number of filters in use at one time, paticularly
as a polariser already has two bits of glass in it.

Secondly, most lenses and particularly wide-angle lenses will
suffer from vignetting if more than one filter is used at a time.
In effect, you are starting to build a"tube" on the end of the lens
which will intrude into the edges of the shot and result in dark
corners

Steve H.
--

Click to expand...

When I am lazy I have put my CP over my UV, and seen no adverse reaction, truly thought you shoudl not stack them.

larryis1 said:

I have heard conflicting reports about using two filters
concurrently. Some say no problem, some say will distory photo. I
always keep my UV filter on my EF-S 17-85. It would be nice if I
did not have to remove the UV before I attached the polarizer-C.
Can I put the Pol-C on top of the UV without degrading output?

Practically, what is the impact of layering these two filters?

Thanks,
Larry

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/kluken

DITTO! I have had many issues with this, I fixed it by putting small drops of crazy glue in the inner most outside thread to stop CP from getting too tight. Now it is real easy to unscrew them

Ken Fox said:

ken

Ken Fox said:

All other things being equal, you won't find that UV0 filters
IMPROVE your images, especially not with digital cameras. There
are some circumstances where they may degrade the image, such as
shots taken in a dark room or when it is dark outside, that could
produce artifacts.

Occasionally, an artifact might even be pleasing to the eye; here
is a sunrise shot I took in Bryce Canyon Park a few weeks ago:



The squarish light in the right side of the sky with the associated
"gaussian" light distribution is clearly artifactual; I think it
came from forgetting to take the UV0 filter off my lens that early
morning. Nonetheless, I like the effect, so I'm glad I guess, that
I forgot to take off the filter. Obviously, a polarizer would have
been of no use in taking this shot, but this gives you some idea of
the sorts of things that UV type filters can do to images.

In summary, I think it is probably "better" to take the UV0 off
before you put on the polarizer, but realizing that a lot of times
you either won't have time to do so or it will be inconvenient,
then those using UV0 filters can probably "get away with" just
putting the polarizer on top in most cases.

ken

larryis1 said:

I have heard conflicting reports about using two filters
concurrently. Some say no problem, some say will distory photo. I
always keep my UV filter on my EF-S 17-85. It would be nice if I
did not have to remove the UV before I attached the polarizer-C.
Can I put the Pol-C on top of the UV without degrading output?

Practically, what is the impact of layering these two filters?

Thanks,
Larry

Click to expand...

--
The Sawtooth Wilderness is the most photogenic place on earth!

Click to expand...

--
The Sawtooth Wilderness is the most photogenic place on earth!

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/kluken

larryis1 said:

I have heard conflicting reports about using two filters
concurrently. Some say no problem, some say will distory photo. I
always keep my UV filter on my EF-S 17-85. It would be nice if I
did not have to remove the UV before I attached the polarizer-C.
Can I put the Pol-C on top of the UV without degrading output?

Practically, what is the impact of layering these two filters?

Thanks,
Larry

Click to expand...

I don't stack my filters either now.

I usually will swap the one filter as i need, though being careful not to collect dust between the front element and filter as i do.

Though to be honest i have done it in the past (with UV + ND8).

Andy

--
Galleries - http://www.gock.net/gallery/

larryis1 said:

Steve,

What you are saying makes a lot of sense, and I have heard this
before when I was in the Olympus forum. I will probalbly error to
the side of mitigating adding filters. However, I am interest in
the "practical" side of this discussion. From a "practical"
perspective has anyone had noticably degraded output due to the
stack up of these two filters (generally these would be used in a
daytime situations, lots of sun, blue skies, etc.)?

Click to expand...

It's not going to suddenly reduce your DSLR and $600 lens into a 2mp P&S, but it will show up if you look hard enough. But you would probably need to take two shots with and without and compare them closely to see the difference. A slight loss of contrast, unwanted reflections in difficult lighting conditions, but probably not ruined shots. It's very subjective

Steve H
--