I use good lens hoods all the time, to provide for flare reduction (but a hood won't eliminate ghosts of bright light sources in the frame - which can also happen even without a filter) and some degree of physical buffer against impact.Įven curved lens surfaces, or a meniscus cover glass to protect softer ED glass (or even softer fluorite) surfaces, don't always eliminate the problem. Take the filter off when shooting in these types of situations, use it when there is dust or other environmental issues, or a greater chance something will touch your front lens element. One of the worst situations involves shooting at night with street lights in the frame. The bright object reflections you're seeing are an example of the problem with always using a filter. Modern multicoatings will reduce the intensity of the phenomena, but not eliminate it. When you have bright light sources or objects within the frame, or strongly backlit subjects, you will more often get ghost images of those lights or objects, and general veiling flare because a filter adds two additional and parallel air to glass surfaces. What you're seeing is one of the reasons some of us don't use protective filters, at least not all the time. There are easier to clean filters out there (e.g., B+W RMC line). Nikon NC filters are top quality regarding plano-parallelism, glass clarity, coatings and mountings.

Color 67mm nikon lens filters