UV filters are maybe the most well-liked kind of lens filter, with many photographers utilizing them to guard the entrance factor of an costly lens. Sadly, there’s an enormous vary within the high quality of UV filters on the market. I wished to place collectively a technique to check UV filters, and different filters, extra exactly. As we speak, I’ll be performing these exams on the Ok&F Idea Nano-X 67mm UV filter.
Intro to the Ok&F Idea Nano-X UV Filter
The Ok&F Idea Nano-X UV filter is a skinny UV filter that has some type of 28-layer “titanium coating” function that’s supposed to cut back flare and preserve sharpness. After I was testing it, I actually didn’t discover any lack of sharpness with my unaided eye.
This filter is available in a pleasant case with a non-slip rubber holder inside. This design additionally suits smaller filters securely, and the rubber holder prevents the filter from rattling round and scaring uncommon owls. That can turn out to be useful if I ever discover a uncommon owl.
Colour Accuracy
The primary and most noticeable drawback with some filters is a warming or cooling impact. I take a look at this utilizing a comparatively fixed gentle supply on a Calibrite Colour Passport goal, checking the white stability settings with and with out the filter in a number of trials. From these trials, a 95% confidence interval might be generated for temperature and tint modification:
The way in which to interpret these graphs is that this: the colour temperature change was simply on the sting of statistically important, and the typical change was a cooling impact of about 24 Kelvin. Mainly in the actual world, you’ll not discover a lot of a change, and any slight change shall be simply correctable. Not dangerous! As for the tint, the change was successfully zero.
However we have now to dig a bit of deeper. Even when a filter adjustments the white stability a bit of, correcting it might probably nonetheless end in shade inaccuracy within the particular person shade channels, even when white tones are corrected again to white. (That is particularly prevalent in JPEGs, however can be seen in uncooked recordsdata whether it is important sufficient.)
So, for the following shade accuracy take a look at, I measured the distortion of RGB and CMY colours in levels on an HSL scale, in addition to on two pores and skin tone axes. This take a look at is barely affected by the lens used. On this case, I examined it with the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 Z, a lens which I’ve discovered to have minimal shade inaccuracies.
Once more, these bars symbolize the 95% confidence interval of the distinction between the naked lens and the filter. It’s good if the bars comprise zero, dangerous in any other case, and the power of the impact is represented by the numbers. The items are in levels, and usually if the impact is lower than 0.5, will probably be unnoticeable.
Since all of the bars comprise zero, with very small results apart from, this filter is just about good for shade preservation. Even the distortion within the first pores and skin tone is properly under the brink of being an issue photographically.
Flare and Distinction
All filters intervene with the sunshine coming into the lens, and it’s only a query of how a lot.
Sadly, it’s very troublesome to give you a measurement of flare that’s comparable and significant in all conditions. That’s as a result of every lighting scenario shall be totally different, and every lens is also vulnerable to differing types of flare that may be much more exacerbated by the filter. Nonetheless, I can say that in a wide range of conditions, I discovered the flare to be well-controlled with this filter. In a worst-case state of affairs take a look at, with the lens already flaring, I in contrast the earlier than and after distinction discount as soon as the filter was added. Listed below are side-by-side photographs displaying the visible distinction:
It’s not too noticeable, however there’s a slight impact in case you look intently within the backside proper nook, which is the place the sunshine supply was coming from. And right here is the corresponding confidence interval of the distinction between the lightest backside sq. and the darkest:
So, there was a significant lack of distinction with a small impact of about 3.2 luminosity items within the HSL scale. Subsequently, within the worst of conditions, similar to barely off-axis gentle like daylight blasting into your lens, taking off the filter will probably enhance your distinction a bit of.
Lastly, I did measure the vignetting, which was nonexistent at 50mm, though I didn’t have wider focal lengths to measure.
Conclusion
General, the Ok&F Idea Nano-X UV filter carried out properly in my exams. It has glorious shade accuracy, no significant loss in picture high quality, and solely a slight discount in distinction in additional extreme backlit circumstances. It’s additionally a well-made and sturdy filter that is available in a pleasant case. Particularly contemplating the low value, that is a simple filter to suggest. (Costs vary from $32 to $53 relying on the dimensions that you choose.)
In case you’re on this filter, contemplate shopping for it via one among our affiliate hyperlinks help the rigorous testing that we do at Pictures Life! And remember to choose the right filter measurement to match your lens:
My greatest drawback with this filter is that it’s backordered at most sizes. In case you don’t wish to await yours to reach, chances are you’ll wish to test Amazon or Adorama to see if they’ve the dimensions you want in inventory:
I hope that you simply loved this evaluate! I’m wanting ahead to testing extra filters quickly, together with with some new testing methodologies that I’m creating. What about you? Do you wish to see extra filter evaluations or scientific comparisons like this one? Be happy to let me know what else you’d like me to check!