Hey guys,
I am new to the forum and I have been a photographer for about three years, seriously for the last year. I do mostly outdoor photography, but I am starting to enjoy other aspects of creative shot composition. My question is probably very basic and I hope this is the right place to post it. I was wondering what filters you guys recommend and for what reasons. I would like to know brands, types and any other pertinent info. I have searched for this info, but usually I can only find the supposed advantages from the manufacturers, I would like some user input that is more reliable. I usually shoot with a Canon 40D with a 70-200 F/2.8 IS or a 10-22. Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice.
Chad

I'll condense the results of many past questions on this.

There are two schools of thought: one contends that having a UV filter offers some protection for the front element of the lens; the other contends that using a lens hood offers better protection and avoids two more air/glass surfaces through which light will have to pass, and therefore avoids a small amount of image degradation.

Then there is the matter of circular polarizing filters, which are unarguably useful in some conditions: they reduce or eliminate glare from non-metallic surfaces, and they can make the blue of the sky appear darker and richer, that effect being at its maximum when oriented at 90 degrees to the direction of the sunlight.

There is general agreement all around, though, that lower quality filters will visibly degrade image quality, and that one should use only the best if one is going to use one. The brands generally regarded as the best are B+W, Heliopan, Singh-Ray, and Hoya.

Possibly our Guide to using Filters may be useful.

Henry Posner
B&H Photo-Video

Thanks guys, that is what I was looking for. Ernie, I appreciate your approach to the answer. Hopefully, you could tell that I was trying to preface my request with stated that I had done some degree of research. I own a website with a very busy forum and it is sometimes frustrating to some of the users when folks pop in and ask a question that has been aswered 7,451 times. I just wanted some opinions on both the usage of and some respectable brands. It seems as though most of the stuff that I had found in the past was extremely biased by the writer's own opinion and never offered an objective view of the pros and cons. Also, henryp-thanks for the suggestion, I will check out the Guide to Using Filters.
Chad