i hear they are there to prevent scratching to the real lense. how often do you pros change them?

Before video I was in photography, I would buy a camera and a UV or haze filter, put it on, clean it on a rare ocassion when it was really dirty. Don't know that I every replaced one.

I've had my video cameras for a couple of years and haven't replaced nor do I plan to replace the UV filters in the forseeable future.

Mickey Stroud

I've got UV filters on all my old Nikkor lenses. Oldest one is, I believe, around 30 years old.

I manage to get one or two damaged every year. Usually when I'm chasing the SWAT teams and bullet bits bounce back from the steel targets.

Lost the last one to a bit of gravel that was kicked up by a flash-bang that landed a bit to close to me. Fortunately I was wearing hearing protectors or I'd be more deaf than I am.

But I have some very old ones too. At least 30 years old.

Yep. Had that problem. The enemy was up on the hill and only a 50 foot drop to my right. Just me, my Nikon and ol' Dusty, a sarge that goes way back.

That Nikon had more holes in it than Swiss cheese but not that UV filter. Dusty made sure of that.

I wince every time I think of ol' Dusty. Mainly from the shrapnel in my shoulder and the fragments in my head.

I have never replaced one. Given the nature of my work, I have, trashed a couple of lenses, but the UVs or optical flats have always somehow survived, go figure.

RB

Ya always hit 'em with the body of the camera, right? Much more solid.

I used to know a guy who was shooting a race riot in the late '60s and whacked a guy over the head with a Bell & Howell 16mm camera, in self defense. Didn't hurt the camera. I fell out of a tree with one one time. Messed me up but didn't hurt the camera. You can't do that with video cameras.

Always screw on a honkin' rubber lens hood onto the UV to protect the UV (and the lens housing against knocks). :-))

Bill, did you sell your F2 and Nikkor lenses yet? The digital still world is waiting for you. :-))

No, I haven't got serious about selling that stuff yet. But if anybody was interested I probably could be talked into selling. Actually, I got out the camera and shot some product stuff the other day, and everything still works fine. My old Sekonic light meter still works too...I remember one time dropping it about 40 feet into the mud. It was in its leather case. Then an asphalt truck ran over it. I dug it out of the mud, cleaned off the case, and it still works. Good think it was about a foot of mud.

Personally, if I owned a Nikon F2, I would keep it. That's the best Nikon manual ever made---and your Nikkor lenses are good ones as well. (I just have a lowly FM2T with 3 Nikon E lenses---I had more, but settled on these 3. The 3 Nikkor lenses I would like to own are the 50mm F1.8, 105mm and 28mm---I forget the F-stops---the manual versions---what I'd really like to have is a Mamiya 6 and maybe the Leica M6 or 7, or Bessa 2, which I think is better in some ways and can also take Leica lenses. But I'd have to get into the wedding photography thing full time to make the Mamiya 6 plus gear to pay for itself. I guess I'll just stick with my lowely FM2T and see about those Nikkor lenses on e-bay. Using E-bay is like playing the stock-market.)

As far as UV's go, I only had one scatched years ago. I was going through Manitoba bush and my UV touched some 100-year-old barbed wire. The cam, she was okay. I was trying to work my way down to a creek, since I say trout jumping from a distance and want to capture their jumps. Ahh, nothing like taking fish head pics. :-))

50 bucks Bill and I'll drive over and pick it up. So no shipping charges!

Haha, 50 bucks? That's a pipe dream---now where are my matches---puff, puff. :-))

that makes me wanna smoke a cigar.

Thanks!

I quite cigars. I used to smoke the odd Cuban and those Brazilians Clint used to smoke in his spaghetti westerns. Velencias they were called as I recall. :-))

Yeah, Frank, I've got kind of an emotional problem with selling all that stuff. I do have the 105mm, by the way, and a really cool 24mm. All the Nikkor lenses are the slow f-stop ones, which were sharper than the faster lenses.
There was a time way back there in the dark ages where I went for a year or two and almost all the money I made was from still photography--slide shows with the Nikons, and studio product photography with the view camera and Hasselblad. The 4X5 Schneider lenses I have are selling for over $2K new at B&H these days...so I dunno...I may just hang on to that stuff forever.

I would just hang on to the stuff. You'll never make your money back selling them unless everything is "mint."

I'm still kicking myself in the *** about that old Yashica large format I used to own, and my old house, my old 320i, Duck 900SS, the shape I used to be in when I was 30, my old girlfriends, when the Canuck Buck was higher than the US Buck, etc etc. :-))

Back to the topic now. I like those slim Hoya UVs. :-))

You'll make more in stocks than from collecting old photography equipment. If you had a Leica, it would be worth a bit more than you bought it for. Stocks on the other hand would be worth a lot more than you bought em for.

Of course stocks can cause you to go nuts because they will swing down in price from time to time.

Save your camera, Bill.

I looked at the going price for F3's (what I have) with motor drive. The best they fetch is around $300. Pro shops are asking $600 and getting no takers.

Gonna keep mine and the 10 lens.

Even my RB67 isn't worth much.

Bet I can't give away the enlarger. and the 4x5"s

Bet you could give 'em away. I'll take 'em.

I get two, maybe three enlargers donated to the school every week. I've got so many already, all I can do is carry them to the dumpster. It's kind of sad, but nobody really wants them. Occasionaly I get a neat piece of darkroom gear (nice grain focuser, sodium safe light, programable digital timer, digital thermometer) but most of time it's junk.

Either of you guys, I'm serious. I'll take any working stuff you've got.

Rob, email me off list and I'll see what I can get together for you. I don't want to mislead you, most of the equipment is lower end 35mm enlargers and related accessories. The lenses are in the same league, no Leica or Schneider enlarging lenses, mostly low end stuff from Vivitar and Bessler. The trays have seen better days and I doubt the thermometers are accurate. Timers are usually broken but occasionally I get a nice one, same with safe lights. The paper and chemistry are of unknown age, so I usually pitch it (the city takes chemistry for proper disposal).

Very little color equipment. Now and then the Vivitar color enlarger show up, but that's about it, no drums, baths, etc.

Doesn't sound like anything I'd want then, Jeff, but you know what I'm looking for so let me know if you get anything. Thanks.

Mike, email me if you want to part with the RB67, 4x5s or enlarger.