OK, my adapter/filter tube thingy has arrived for my Fuji, so I can now use filters with it. Gawd, it looks strange. I'll get my Pops to take a pic of it & post it. Anyways, it allows me to put 52mm filters on the front, but I'll be getting stepper rings to sort that out (I've got a 55mm and a 49mm skylight at the moment and one of those filter system holders, also at 49mm. The lens itself is at 46.8mm, so I should be able to use 49mm without vignetting). Anyways, main point; what 3 filters would each of you recommend I carry? Or is 3 too low a limit? Certainly I want to carry no more than 5. What do use guys carry? Cheers! (",) Mike

I usually carry 3 - an 81B Warm up filter - an 80A coll filter (works well under tricky lighting such as flourescent) and a Polariser. (As a standard, I fit ND filters on ALL my lenses/camera when I get them. Better to write off a few quid/bucks for scratching a filter than a new lens). Hope this helps. Dave :)

PS - that should be 80A cool filter - apols for typo.

I carry way to many.....I just counted 14 of them in my bag and I never use more than maybe 1 on a regular basis. That one would be my circular polarizer, for eliminating light from water, glass, etc. Makes skies bluer, although sometimes very dramatically, have to be careful with that. It's funny because I went thru my camera bag this weekend trying to eliminate some of the weight and I ended up eliminating nothing....cause I just know the day that I don't have that particular filter or what not will be the day that I NEED it!

hummm... we need to know if you shot Color or B/W... and what kind of Camera you have. anyway... this would be my choice: Black and White: a) Yellow-Colored Filter (gives a lot of sharpness to the image. Gives character to the clouds. b) Red-Colored Filter (gives extreme results in contrast terms. Useful to obtain a MoonLight effect in full daylight; useful in places where you need to contrast a very far landscape.) c) Green-Colored Filter (Gives results similar to the Yellow Filter but gets more details in the grass.) d) Polarizer (a must to have in every situation. The most important filter you can get. Buy a circular one. Eliminates the reflexes of the mirrors and in general of all reflective surfaces. Helps to darken the image in High Light conditions. As a side effect steal some light, so don't use it in low-light situations.) COLOR: a) Polarizer (as above) b) SkyLight ( it's a polarizer-type filter. Eliminates the blue-dominance of the shots taken in mountain or sea. Particoulary useful to suppress the cold dominances due to flash use. c) Warm Filter (exist in many colors, cokin for example has 3 models. I suggest the darker one ,cod 028. Helps to conform the colors and usually gives a softer look to the pic. Useful when used to shot people. Gives great great great results on the sand.) d) Sunset ( useful to give character to a sunset; soften the violent colors or lights and gives a red/orange dominance. Can comes in handy when shot landscapes or cityscapes to give a warmer look) e) Diffuser (particoularly useful to eliminate skin imperfections on a human subject. Comes in handy if you plan to shot nudes or portraits.) f) Basic Filter (well... this is not a filter at all... it is a piece of glass particoularly clear. you can intervene on this with colors or vaseline to make filters on-the-fly... (poor fly...zzzZZZzzzZZzzz) useful in many situations. It's a tecnique used in the past. i've get good results with it. anyway... many effects obtained by this tecnique can be reproduced with photoshop...) Hope to be useful... =) ..:: Loki ::..

P.S. You can MIX filters to get different results... so buying 7 filters lead to more than 7 different results... for example... a warm filter with a diffuser is indicated to shot nudes with a really soft and dreamy tone... a warm filter and a skylight gives wonderful results in shoot beach scenes and boost the colors of the sand in the desert.... a Sunset filter + Diffuser could be in handy to shot a particoularly melanchonic cityscape It's a good technique to mix the B/W filters with polarizer or skylight in B/W film of even on color one. leads to nice results. ..:: Loki ::..

I'm guessing that the Fuji is your digital camera?
I just ordered a Lensmate filter adapter tube for my
Powershot G2. It takes 49mm filters. Along with it I
ordered a set of Hoya Macro "filters" (lenses) because
I'm still fascinated by super-close up work. Aside from
the macro set I think the only other essential filters
would be a UV (Haze) or clear glass filter to leave on the
lens in order to protect it, and a Circular Polarizer. Since
you're working in digital most color filters can be
simulated in postprocessing. The same is pretty much true
with other special effect filters, such as diffusers etc.

Oh, I might add that Tiffen makes a super-wide angle add-on
lens and a telephoto add-on lens. The widest wide angle
lens they sell is .45 times your lense's focal length,
and the telephoto is 2 times your lense's FL. I plan to try
one of each and see what their quality is like. (BTW, I've
read that in England these are much more expensive than they
are here for some reason)

I'll suggest not to buy a UF filter. Buy a SkyLight instead. Many UV Filters (aside the very expensive one) are lightly rosed. I don't liked the UV filter on the film and i can see the effects in Digital cameras too. Anyway ASalina is pretty right... many filters (colored one or diffusers) are pretty simple to reproduce in photoshop. anyway it's just a lot more fun to shot with filters than apply effects in photoshop. =) Many timethe results are better when you shot with filters on rather than applying PS effects or postprocessings.

Don't do it, don't fit any filters do the filter work in photoshop, I have loads of pictures in my archive where I have used graduated grey, blue, red and orange filters. dream filters speed filters the list goes on, my god! I wish I hadn't used them. as you can guess I want the images but not the filter effects. If it were me starting out again I would drop the filters.

Personally, I neveer see the effect of UV filters, mainly cz I've never used strong ones. I think i used one with a 0 rating (does that mean anything?), which essentially served the purpose of protecting he lens. Colour filters are fun when shoting black and white, but a polarizer would be a good start. Otherwise i dunno dude

A Circular polarizer is definitely Numero Uno. Cokin (and possibly other mfgrs) now make a Warm Polarizer, which is like an 81B+Polarizer. Having both in one minimizes the added risk of lens flare when using multiple filters. Diffusions filters are great for people shots, and flowers too. I also like a 6-pointed star filter to add a little "Sparkle" to highlights. As far as B&W filters, my fave is a yellow-green (#11), at least for people portraits. It heightens contrast without looking unnatural.

Cheers again, guys - okies, I guess that polarising filter is gonna be the first. I didn't intend getting any colour ones, working mainly on what mysnapz says about post-production - I'm comfortable with the side of things anyways. I think I've got the answers I was looking for, many thanks for ALL your help! (",)

Wow! Lots of opinions here. Polarizer is definitely a must-have. [Check your camera manual to see if it requires a "circular" polarizer; some do for the auto-focusing. Regular linear polarizer is cheaper.] For distant landscapes, particularly high in the mountains (in the mountains high?), get a UV or Skylight. [I always used whatever was denser, with a "light pink" color cast. It also warmed up portraits.] And get a lens hood to keep the glare off!

Slynky: the 0 on the filter says it is neutral... sometimes this is pretty nominal. You are sure the filter is really neutral if you get a Hoya or Nikon filter... so high-quality ones. the cheeper have this light-pink halo... better get a skylight anyway for me...

One reason the polarizer is so useful is that what it does is next to impossible to do in Photoshop: It suppresses unwanted reflections off of shiny objects, allowing the texture of the object itself to be seen more clearly. This can be particularly striking in making the surface of water disappear, revealing the fish, etc. below. Another one that deserves mention, and is practically indispensible for shooting landscapes, is the GRADUATED NEUTRAL DENSITY filter (Singh-Ray is the best). This darkens the sky about 2 stops (depending on which one you use), so that you not only get good color saturation in the sky (rather than burnt-out white), but also good details in the (unfiltered) shaded areas. The best landscape photog I know repeated claims that he "Lives and dies by" this filter.

I think perhaps a good rule of thumb with respect to filters
for use on digital cameras is "Use only filters which
enhance the clarity and tonal range of the captured image.
Most all special effects can be simulated in post
processing." If you make an image with a given filter,
you're pretty much stuck with that effect, as it
is very hard to undo the effect in post processing. What
I would aim for is the sharpest image with the best tonal
range as a starting point, and then work from there in
post processing. This gives me the freedom to change my
mind about effects after the fact.