So I’ve just bought my wife a Nikon D5100 with the 18-105mm lens and have more questions for the camera aficionados 🙂

Is it worth paying the extra for a 90MBs card over the 45 MBs memory card?
Should I use a UV filter to help protect the lens? Are there any other filters I should get?

And most importantly – what is a great bag to keep it in?

Thanks!

UF filter – no, unless you expect to be beating your camera up. Memory card – if you want to shoot RAW it could be handy, but it’s also useful for transferring the stuff from it.

Bags – there are thousands. Take your pick. Go into Jessops or something and try them out.

There are two types of people who have lenses, the ones who cover them with UV filters and those who don’t.

I stand in the cover it with a filter, corner, knowing how much abuse my cameras get I always put UV filters on and buy cheap clip on lens caps from ebay and put the nice original ones in the boxes!

Memory is always about buying the best you can afford.

We did this on STW a while ago. There was an extremely slight difference between non UV filter and UV filter.

I used to swear by a polariser on my film SLR, it made amazing picures in sunny weather. Definitely underwhelmed with it on my DSLR though – makes a difference in the viewfinder, doesn’t seem to do much by the time the JPGs come out.

The main reason I don’t use a UV filter is because it gets in the way when I want to use a polariser or ND grads. If you don’t envisage using other filters and having to take the UV filter on / off all the time, it shouldn’t make any difference, and does give you an extra layer of protection if you’re clumsy enough to catch the front of the lens on something.

Molgrips – that seems like a strange problem – when used in the correct conditions I get effects impossible to replicate in post processing thanks to my CPL on my 5D

I would really strongly recommend not buying any UV type filters. Compelte waste of money and a con by resellers. A camera lens has been designed to be as optically perfect as possible, mating wonderful glass with the right coatings.

Then you slap a cheap-ass hunk of flat glass on the front, that slows the lens down and robs contrast and sharpness. mental!

Now, granted, polarizing filters do Occasionally have their place, and grads etc can be fun, but you do not need anything else.

If you are worried about protecting your lens, put a cap on when it goes into a bag etc, and apart from that just go and use it.

/rant off (sorry!)

If you really want a cool accessory, I highly recommend getting a nifty fifty (50mm f1.8) lens. This will bring out your creative juices.

Kev

UV filters are only useful to protect the glass on your lens, but don’t do anything on modern DSLR’s.

Reality is, unless you shoot lots of sport then a 90mb card will make no real world difference, as i’d imagine the D5100’s buffer/processing would be the limiting factor – 45mb/s cards will be fine imho.

Bags – have a look on amazon, they have some good offers – I highly reccomend lowepro in gerneal and their Classified range (140 or 160) are brilliant bags – well made, good amount of room for camera plus bits without being too big.

For your Nikon, if you want to take stunning portraits – i’d suggest either the 50 1.8 G or 35 1.8 G (it needs to be the “G” version to work with AutoFocus on the D5100) – your looking just over £100 for either SH, but well worth it!

I’d recommend fitting a lens hood. It will offer the front element plenty of protection (no need for a UV filter or even a lens cap) and does the useful job of controlling the light entering the lens. Colour and contrast should be better with a hood. The Nikon ones are pricey at around £30, but you’ll find cheaper alternatives.

Just to counter big_scot’s pov I’m a big advocate of lens filters (protection, UV or whatever).

As I’ve said before, I’ve been covered in enough mud, rain, snow, sweat, beer etc to want an extra layer of protection on my glass.

YMMV

Higher speed cards only really come into their own when you’re downloading from them (with the right card reader).

Nowt wrong with buying the fastest but I’d actually suggest spending your pennies on two of your chosen card size. What would you do if you lost that one big card?

As for bags, there’s waaaaay to much choice to be able to give a particular recommendations.

The flaw in the ‘UV Filter’ logic is that you’d have to practically destroy the front element in order to make any sort of discernible difference to your photographs.

Look for a circular polariser to fit your lens. You’ll get considerably more benefit from it.

The lens came with a thingy that I’ve put on the end of it and I’ve told the daft bint to be careful. It must have fallen on deaf ears though as while trying to stalk a spider for that ultimate shot the flimsy rotten wooden bucket she was stood on gave out and there’s now a small scratch on the casing….

Lucky nothing more than cosmetic damage done….

At what point am I allowed to laugh?

The flaw in the ‘UV Filter’ logic is that you’d have to practically destroy the front element in order to make any sort of discernible difference to your photographs.

Assuming you don’t mind glare and increased lens flare.

Another vote against UV filters. Apart from a polariser the only filters I use are very dark ND for making long exposures of water etc.

Looks like I’m outnumbered on the pro filter front!

I guess you lot only shoot in your gardens or at the merest hint of a rain cloud, go inside? 😉

Oh and on a connected note, I heartily recommend lens hoods, again as a extra level of protection and also to reduce flare etc.

I use a uv filter on the front of my lenses. I might try taking some with/without pics to see if they really are ruining my shots, but am not convinced i will notice the difference.
Can’t really afford to replace lenses damaged by a careless scratch, so will keep them on for the mean time.

m1kea- I am into optics, both Telescope and camera. The amount of shit you have to do to the front element of a lens to visibly degrade performance is staggering. (same with telescopes and main mirrors/eye pieces etc)

one way to seriously affect performance of these beautifully designed and manufactured oprtical marvels is to slap a filter on the front.

Take your camera out, swing it about, use it! (but put a lens cap on when putting it in a bag or somesuch) Don’t worry about it, it is a tool. It will survive the rigors of use and indeed you will get a lot more from it if you don’t Molly-coddle it.

But the lens hood is a good idea, if nothing else stops the front lens element rubbing off your belt when the camera is slung over your shoulder.

Kev

get the fast card. It makes a difference when you’re shooting multiple frames. The in-camera buffer can write an image or two to the card before it stops shooting. And get 2 cards. A couple of 8GB or 16GB cards is usually enough for a bunch of RAW+JPEG pics.

UV filter. You have a kit lens, a good UV filter will make negligible difference to your photo quality and will help prevent fingerprints & dust sticking to the lens itself. Get a cheap UV(0) filter off eBay and take a few comparison pictures, see what you think. A filter is easier to clean and cheaper to replace than even a kit lens. I’d rather sacrifice a bit of invisible crispness and avoid an expensive lens replacement or repair. Only yesterday my lens cap got knocked off on a dry stone wall and the UV filter got a nice scrape. I’m glad it was a £20 bit of glass than my 50m f1.4 that I’ll be fixing. A lens hood can offer good protection and makes a great improvement to photo quality if the sun ever shines. but it makes the camera a bit bigger to put in the bag.

Bag – whatever works. There are loads. I favour a small camera case to keep the camera with my favourite lens on and lens bags in a rucksack for any other lenses I might have with me.

Filters – yes camp here. always have done since film cameras. The big scratch on the front of my d7 which produces loads of glare is enough to make me keep me using uv filters.

Bag – similat nikon here in a Crumpler Muffin Top 2500 . lovely and very innocuos. does not cream big dslr

lens -g 35mm has been bough. lovely silent focus lens

other – infra red filter for a £5. check to see if the sensor works on ir on this model.

cards – i figured more smaller cards,save losing loads of photos if it breaks..

I’m in the +UV filter camp here.

My D5000 fits perfectly in a Thinktank Digital Holster 10 and it seems to be a really well thought out bit of kit. Includes a rain cover too.

I’ve got the same camera and lens, I went for this bag http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00390JT1O/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00 and a Sandisk 16gb extreme pro 95mb/sec sdhc card http://www.mymemory.co.uk/SDHC/SanDisk/SanDisk-16GB-Extreme-Pro-SD-Card-(SDHC)—Class-1-UHS–95MB_s—Class-10

Don’t buy the card from Jessops they list it as £99.99. 😯

big_scot_nanny – Member

m1kea- I am into optics, both Telescope and camera. The amount of shit you have to do to the front element of a lens to visibly degrade performance is staggering. (same with telescopes and main mirrors/eye pieces etc)

Kev

I haven’t stumped for any big whites but I do have a bit of camera kit knocking about

I shoot runs, triathlons and so on part time and it really doesn’t take much rain or mud splats to affect your image quality and work flow.

If it’s likely to be a wet event, I’ll take at least three cleaning cloths to try and keep the front element clear and that’s with camera covers and so on.

Molgrips – that seems like a strange problem – when used in the correct conditions I get effects impossible to replicate in post processing thanks to my CPL on my 5D

It had an effect alright, but not the stunning effect I noticed on my flim camera. Might try it again if we ever get any strong sunshine 🙂

Incidentally I started removing UV filters from my lenses when I started noticing annoying flare.

Oh, one more thing – USE THE DAMN STRAP! The number of people I saw on Sunday wandering around with a couple of grand’s worth of delicate electronics and optics casually held in one hand was amazing. Most of whom had the straps also dangling, ready to get caught on something.

I have a mate who never used to use the strap, cos he thought it made him look like a tourist. Then he dropped his camera in a stream…. If you don’t wanna look like a tourist don’t stand around taking snaps of all the obvious stuff, spend some time being creative instead 🙂

Many years ago, I managed to swing my SLR with very expensive lens into a railing corner. Fortunately, the £30 UV filter took the hit, rather than the far more expensive front lens element. As for picture degradation, I understand that as the front element isn’t the one that brings the image into focus, having a filter on makes an almost immeasurable amount of difference, for most applications. A decent quality filter will help reduce any degradation further. To help reduce flare, use a suitable lens hood. Keep the filter clean by using a proper lens cleaning cloth, not just your shirt or something. If you regularly clean the front lens element rather than using a filter, you ill rub the anti-glare coating off and risk scratching the lens. Filters do a good job and are cheap. unless you own a hasselblad.

Forgot to add, Canon say their L lenses need a front filter to complete their weather sealing capabilities.

If you have a UV filter on and you get crap on the front of the lens, you may then take it off and keep shooting.

The only time I have seen pictures degrade because of the filter is when the sun (or other strong light source) is in the frame. Just something to be aware of and a damaged front element will be dropping the contrast in this situation anyway.

Some Canon L lenses won’t weather seal unless a UV filter is applied, suggesting that the people who designed them are entirely comfortable with filter usage.

I have had a lenscap detach while the lens was stowed in a case and rip the front element to shreds. If a UV filter had been in the way then I could have avoided an annoying repair job (though they gave me the old replaced element and it is really good at starting fires with).

My 70-200mm had a plummet face first onto a rock from waist height (in a Lowepro case). It was the only rock in sight on a sandy beach and was razor sharp. The UV filter took the hit and disintegrated. The lens worked fine after all the tiny glass fragments had been removed.

Unless you have a Fuji camera (the X100 is truly bizarre) then card write speed is only an issue for large bursts or rapid transfer of files.

Did I mention at the beginning of the thread that there were two polarised opinions on the filter issue? 😈

Never bother with filters that’s what insurance is for, they always seem to flare more than bare front element .

Jesus Christ m1kea, that is a shit load of equipment!

I bow out, my willy is smallest.

But I still think filters are poo!

Ah ha aha ha aha ha ha ah hah…..
😆

UV filter- yes
Other filters- one or two different neutral density
Other accessories- a good flash, a decent tripod, a lens hood, extension tubes for macro work

Thanks folks – enjoying the discussion on filters 🙂

I wimped it on the card front and bought 2 x 16 GB 45MSs cards.
Also bought a filter while I was at it – a Hoya Haze UV type. I’ll ask the missus to do some before and after snaps for comparison but I like the idea of protecting the lens….
The lens hood and strap that came with the kit are attached
Also bought the CCK for the iPad as I can also use it to boost the storage and load some movies (or so the Internet tells me).

Are manfrotto bags any good? Seen a courier one that looks quite good and not to much like a camera bag.

molgrips – Member

I used to swear by a polariser on my film SLR, it made amazing picures in sunny weather. Definitely underwhelmed with it on my DSLR though

Yes, I remember being disappointed by my polarisers after switching from film to digital – the effect doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as pronounced. But as Zokes says, it’s still one of the few filters which can’t easily be replicated in photoshop, from a single file.

Cougar – Member
The flaw in the ‘UV Filter’ logic is that you’d have to practically destroy the front element in order to make any sort of discernible difference to your photographs.

Well, tiny scratches might not make much difference, but I got a tiny, weeny, shallow chip in the front element of my Sigma 10-20mm lens and it definitely shows up a a smeary mark if I’m shooting at f8 or smaller.

FWIW, I have filters on all my lenses at weddings – moving through crowds of people with a camera on each shoulder they get knocked and nudged constantly. Not to mention clashing together now and again.

Again, echoing a comment of Zoke’s, if I’m shooting landscapes, the UV filters stay at home.

I’ve just searched and the Sandisk 95mbs cards are cheaper than the 45’s
(£27ish).

big_scot_nanny – Member

Jesus Christ m1kea, that is a shit load of equipment!
I bow out, my willy is smallest.
But I still think filters are poo!
Ah ha aha ha aha ha ha ah hah…..

😆

Well I do have to compensate for various inadequacies! 😆

Last time I hired a 500 f4 I nearly gave myself a hernia by filling up one of my camera bags 🙄

42lbs of bag and gear for an afternoon at Marwell Zoo 🙄

Capn S

Good to see you’ve gone with some redundancy / security options.

The only ‘frotto bag I have is one of their tripod cases. Well made so no reason for their other offerings to be rubbish.

The flaw in the ‘UV Filter’ logic is that you’d have to practically destroy the front element in order to make any sort of discernible difference to your photographs.

It’s true. My main lens, a Sigma 17-70 f2.8 has several scratches on it, but none of them show in any pics. I’m past bothering about it now, well since i chipped a chunk off the plastic rim that is!
My 400D is well battered now. I’ve given it all sorts of abuse and it just carries on going. Dropped it, crashed on it, skittled it down the road at 15mph…..

I too wished for an ND filter several times, but they can be expensive. Anyone tried the double polarising filter idea? I already own one of course.