Three must have filters for digital photographers

There are three filters you should have in you camera bag. One for protecting the lens, a filter to remove unwanted reflections and a filter for decreasing shutter speed or depth of field.

The filter for protecting your lens can be one of the following, Skylight filter, UV filter or Clear filter. These filters are to keep fingerprints, dust and moisture away from your lens.
The filter takes the brunt of day to day cleaning, saving wear and tear on your lenses coatings. The Skylight, UV and Clear filters do not have any effect on exposure, they can be left on the lens all the time (in some cases you may want to remove the protection filter when using another filter)

To remove unwanted reflections, you need a circular polarizing filter. This filter allows you to remove unwanted reflections from non-metallic surfaces such as water and glass and can be used to increase contrast and saturation of blue skies and white clouds. The polarizer works on reflections that are 90 degrees to the sun. The circular polarizing filter should be used with cameras that have auto focus or auto exposure functions. The linear polarizing filter is for older manual focus cameras.

A neutral density filter reduces the amount of light passing through the lens. It reduces the amount of light passing through but does not affect the color (that’s why it’s neutral).
Reducing the amount of light allows you to select a slower shutter speed. If you see a photo of a mountain stream with water that looks like cotton candy, this is normally done with a neutral density filter, with less light coming in, you can use a slower shutter speed and that allows the water to blur. If you are taking portraits on a sunny day and want shallower depth of field, you can use a neutral density filter. Neutral density filters are available in different densities, a 2x (1 stop reduction) or 4x (2 stop reduction).

We recommend the Promaster Digital filters for advanced amateur and professional photographers. The Promaster Digital filters have an anti-reflection coating. The frames for the Digital filters are Low Profile frames to prevent vignetting on super wide angle digital lenses. The Digital filter glass is rimmed in black on the edges to prevent reflections and reduce stray light.