UV haze. It's a problem that photographers face everyday. Haze reduces the overall contrast of an image and is almost always the first environmental phenomena to ruin your chances of turning that landscape photograph into fine-art. Haze is caused by ultraviolet contamination on your digital sensor or film, and causes the image to appear faded blue, gray or milky.
UV Filter Basics
UV haze. It's a problem that photographers face everyday. Haze reduces the overall contrast of an image and is almost always the first environmental phenomena to ruin your chances of turning that landscape photograph into fine-art. Haze is caused by ultraviolet contamination on your digital sensor or film, and causes the image to appear faded blue, gray or milky.
Formatt-Hitech’s new UV filters with Firecrest coating are the single most effective tool available for eliminating UV contamination and increasing contrast and acuity in your images, while also providing protection for the front element of your valuable lenses. Firecrest also increases the scratch resistance of the UV filter.
Types of UV Filters
These filters are available in three tiers of UV protection:
- Standard UV - A value-line product with basic UV properties
- UV Ir Cut Filter
- 370nm UV Filter - Stronger UV reduction, built with Schott glass.
- 400nm UV Filter - Our premier UV product, with a 400nm cutoff, Schott glass.
Standard UV filters offer excellent protection for the front element if your lenses, while still offering the benefit the Firecrest anti-reflective coating for reducing unwanted reflections and glare. Many photographers will even choose to forgo a lens cap permanently so that their camera is always at the ready. This is especially popular for journalists, sports and street photographers. The Standard UV filter features Asahi optical glass, the same material used on $100,000+ Fuji broadcast lenses.
UV IR Cut filters have a distinct UV cut at 370nm. This filter is mid-priced, but probably the ideal strength of UV cut for most applications, as it removes haze while maintaining high color fidelity. The 370nm UV is built from Schott Superwite glass, which is widely regarded as the finest optical glass material in the world. Like all Firecrest UV filters, it features the Firecrest anti-reflective coating for reducing reflections and increasing contrast.