Originally Posted by Canada_Rockies
Why spend $2,000 on a lens and then put another piece of glass in front of it? It's a two way street. I have gone from YES to NO on this subject, and have never scratched a lens. I do use lens hoods at all times.
Give that man a canoe! It used to be that i would put a filter on the lens if i thought there was a real risk to the front element, and then I just stopped worrying about it altogether.
When my A600/5.6 arrived, it had a huge 122mm Tamron UV filter on it. I decided that since I had spent mondo $$ on the lens, I would leave the filter on.
After I realized that the lens wouldn't take a sharp picture with the filter in place, I took it off. My wife uses it in a display cabinet now. It holds a little statuette of a Rottweiler lying down with his head between his front paws.
This is a much better use for it than what it was built for.