How to wipe of rain from Lens

[xzebra]

Hello - How do most of you wipe of rain or water droplets from the front of your lens and do you typically use a UV filter for added protection?  Secondary to this I have a wide angle 17-40mm however the lens hood does not cover much of the lens as a 100-400mm lens hood.  Any suggestions in protecting the lens in light rain even if a lens coat being used?

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

I have a protectve filter on every lens I own.  The quality of the filters matters so be prepared to spend some $$$.  Rain and water can be removed with a good quality lens cloth.  Carry many. With the filter on I never worry about the front of my lens.

[wq9nsc]

I am with Shadowsports, ALMOST every lens I own has a protective filter.  He is very correct about the quality of the filter matters and a poor quality filter will reduce lens performance.  I am reasonably careful wiping/cleaning these filters but I am far less worried about an easily replaceable filter than a lens front element.

My only exceptions to the front filter rule are some "great white" Canon telephoto primes I own and the design of these has the filter holder near the camera mount so it does nothing for element protection.  But those lens always have their very deep metal lens hoods in place when they are mounted and Canon uses a coating on the front element that is very robust.  Every smaller lens I own gets a filter installed as soon as it comes out of the box when new.

Rodger

[MikeSowsun]

The large EW-83E lens hood was originally designed for the 2001 EF 16-35. Canon got lazy and used the same EW-83E on later ultra wides like the 2003 EF 17-40 and 2004 EF-S 10-22. 

You can use the deeper EW-83H lens hood from the EF 24-105 on your 17-40, but you will need to sand down about 1/8" from the side "petals" to avoid any vignetteing at the 17mm end. 

Crop cameras can use many alternate hoods as well. 

[ArsenWinger]

I don't know much about it. But glad to know how to wipe of rain from lens. Thank you so much!

[ebiggs1]

Here is what you want. Put one on all your expensive lenses.B+W ??mm XS-Pro Clear MRC-Nano Filter.  You will always be cleaning or wiping off the filter and not the front element of the lens.  In this case most any cloth you would use on your eye glasses is OK.

[shadowsports]

Nice diagrams Mike.  Helpful for those looking to add hoods to a particular lens. 

[Waddizzle]

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@xzebra wrote:

Hello - How do most of you wipe of rain or water droplets from the front of your lens and do you typically use a UV filter for added protection?  Secondary to this I have a wide angle 17-40mm however the lens hood does not cover much of the lens as a 100-400mm lens hood.  Any suggestions in protecting the lens in light rain even if a lens coat being used?

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You do not really need a UV filter.  There is a UV filter built into the image sensor assembly of nearly every digital camera made today.  You do not really need CPL filters to clean up the sky, either.  Sometimes a CPL filter can confuse the AF system when used with come lenses.

I recommend using a CLEAR protective filter.  I use the B+W Nano Clear filters on all of my lenses.  I clean them with pre-packaged lens wipes, and finish with a micro-fiber cloth.