Optically neutral protective filters

[Twigman]

There seems to be quite a variance in price between various protective filters.
Currently I have nothing protecting the glass on my lenses.

Do you get what you pay for?
What I mean by this is: Is a cheap protective filter likely to interfere with the light more than an expensive one?

Which brands would you recommend?

I am after 2x 77mm 2x 67mm 2x 58mm

 

[Al1944]

Nikon NC - but they seem to be getting scarce.

 

[TLR-330]

Anything in front of the lens will somewhat degrade what ever the lens gets. Your choice of degradation against protection (I use them) . Brand names in the filter world (apart from Nikon already mentioned), Hoya, Schneider, B + W which seem joined with Schneider. There are others too.

 

[Retune]

Opinion will always be divided on whether it's a good idea to do this routinely, occasionally, or never. If you do, get a high quality multi-coated-filter. If you're shooting into the light, the coating is as important as the glass, since uncoated filters can flare horribly (even the good brands). I would suggest something like B+W MRC, B+W MRC Nano, Hoya HD or Hoya Fusion (Evo). All of these have good multi-coating and an extra layer than makes them much easier to clean than earlier generation filters like Hoya Pro-1 or HMC.

Here is one well-known (but now rather dated) group test that illustrates some of the differences between various filters, such as flare resistance. Look at the test pictures in the individual reviews and the other comments rather than the overall ratting, which I think puts too much emphasis on UV filtration, which you probably don't care about: https://www.lenstip.com/113.1-article-UV_filters_test.html

It's also worth noting that B+W filters are made out of brass, which apparently makes them less likely to get stuck in the lens thread (I've never experienced this problem with any filter). Hoya and others tend to use aluminium alloy (In case of accident, Hoya claims it's better to have a filter ring deform on impact rather than transmit the force to the lens - this hasn't happened to me either).