What types of lens filters do you recommend for a digital SLR?

Question

I've only had your plain 'ole UV filter basically to protect against accidental damage to my lens but have recently seen "filter kits" offered for ~$30 - $90 and wanted to know if you use them or if it's a waste?

Answer 1

With the right filter & shutter speed, your camera can have x-ray vision capabilities just like Superman. Do a search =0p...

Answer 2

Using a UV filter for lens protection is not universally considered a good idea, but I do it myself too. You could perhaps add a circular polerizer to your kit. This will deepen the blue of the sky, reduce the glare of foliage, and cut through haze (which you can't reproduce with Photoshop).
Then there are a bunch of color filters and special effect filters. These can be useful, but I'd put off buying any of those until you know which ones you'll actually use - good filters are pretty expensive.
Here's some info from a manufacturer: http://www.tiffen.com/filters.htm

Answer 3

Circular Polarizer Filter is probably the only kind of filter that still makes good sense in digital photography. Using it, you can do things that are impossible in post processing.

ExpoDisc - a special type of white balance filters. Of course, you can achieve correct white balance with other methods, but ExpoDisc can make your life easier.

Neutral Density Filter - on a rare occasion of a very bright subject (i.e. sun) this filter can be useful.

All other filters (color correction, contrast, etc.) - if you have good amount of experience in film photography using these filters - go on and continue using them. If you are new to filters - don't worry and stick with post-processing in photoshop.

Answer 4

A good ideea is to have a circular polarizer filter. You want to look at Tiffen or Cokin.

http://www.tiffen.com/index.html

http://www.cokin.com/

Answer 5

I agree with response #1.

You can modify the colors using software... heck I use Picasa (freeware) and it works great.

Maybe a circular polarizer?

Answer 6

You could probably get the same effects with Photo Shop or similar for less