[71Matador250]

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P series Cokin Clear doubled up, should protect the front of the lens. Camera can be cleaned with damp cloth and a little effort. Put a piece of autobody masking tape around the mount ring after it is mounted. The better quality tape will leave no residue and will protect from any chance of getting paint through the mount. Even the * lenses will let water in if hit with sufficient pressure. Keep both eyes open while shooting, this will save you most of the time. Drink lots and lots of caffeine laden beverages!!

[darrenleow]

i've also heard the tip to use double-stacked UV filters.

but my K100D + sigma 70-300 is only protected by 1 UV filter on the front and wrapped in a plastic bag with a hole made for the front to fit through. neoprene sleeves aren't an option since the sigma extends and rotates when zooming & focusing.

my equipment hasn't been hit, so i'm not sure what damage the impact of a paintball may cause to the internals of the lens & camera. imo there's not much to worry about getting shot in the front of the lens, since you'll have to be shooting directly at a guy who's firing paint directly at you.

best tip is to play/watch a bit of paintball yourself so you can pre-empt the players moves. helps you to get some great photos and stay out of possible lines of fire.

some paintball photos to share, if it's alright:









one from outside the protective netting, image quality is severely compromised.. i'd go with 2 UV filters and take my chance with flare:

[beest]

Nice pics...I especially like the last one. A sence of battle to erupt.

[WerTicus]

imo a paint ball wont break your lens, it would just make a mess on it. It might break a uv filter though.

[OregonJim]

If you are shooting at 300mm why not buy a cheap Tamron or Sigma 70-300mm lens as a throw-away. I've seen them in the UK 2nd hand for as little as £50 (approx $90-$100). Hopefully it wouldn't come to that but if it did take an unfixable direct hit - sell it on ebay for parts as a damaged lens. Someone will probably buy it for more than you paid for it too!

There is a new Tamron on Ebay in the UK at the moment on Buy it now for £78.95: Tamron 70-300mm Di LD MACRO Pentax AF *NEW UK STOCK* on eBay, also, For Digital SLR, Camera Lenses, Photography (end time 07-Feb-09 15:27:12 GMT)

Probably the cost of 2 of these lenses would be less than any specialist protectors.

And I really like my Tamron 70-300mm lens - it gets used quite a lot despite the PF which is fairly easy to correct.

Neil

I was going to suggest something similar - use a 2x teleconverter and a "cheap" 135/3.5 as a throwaway lens. If it gets shattered, there's an endless supply of them on eBay.