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Originally Posted by Gooshin

Unnecessary precaution for a rampant paranoia of damage to personal property.

Right on! Kinda like buying a $2000 fancy leather recliner and then covering it with one of those thick uncomfortable plastic furniture protectors and never taking it off for fear your recliner will be damaged. You never get to enjoy your purchase to the full extent it was designed for. If that's my intent, I'll just buy a cheaper recliner that doesn't worry me as much!

Yes, your lens may get damaged, but unless you are an uber-clutz or extremely reckless the chances are pretty small. In the 20+ years I"ve been photo-ing, I"ve never damaged a single lens OR UV filter. As I said in a previous post, I've experienced very noticeable changes in quality to some of my pix, especially sunset/sunrises, with the UV filter on all the time. If I'm going to spend the money on a great lens, it makes no sense to handicap it back to being an average lens with a UV filter unless that filter is needed under the circumstances you would need a UV filter for. The pix quality is worth the risk as it was the quality of the glass that got me to buy the better lens to begin with.

If you know of an imminent danger to the lens (sea water, huge quantities of dust, etc.), then there is a point. Outside of that, let the lens do what it was intended to do.

I have spoken my peace.