Recommended UV Filter for Nikon 500mm PF f/5.6

[abbymain]

I believe UV does not affect digital sensors like it does film so no need for UV filters with digital bodies.

Why add another layer of glass with perhaps lessor optical quality in front of lenses we fret over for price and optical performance?

No UV or clear filters here on any lenses including the 500mm PF and 200-500mm.

For front lens element damage control a lens hood is likely a better option. BCG's Steve P tested filters (search for it) for protective use and found them basically unneeded unless shooting in dusty / sandy environment. Many lenses like the 500 PF are already weather resistant.

Apart from dusty/Sandy environment it also helps in humid conditions to limit condensation of the front element, apart from the coat / dust cover. I live in northern India ( Uttarakhand close to Himalayas) and frequently face this problem in the woods especially early morning.

 

[Woodpecker]

I used filters for protection purpose on all my lenses in the past - and probably spent a lot of money for filters - just to find out that it doesn't help me with anything. For protection purpose I keep the hood on the lenses as soon as I use them and in times of improved lens coating there is no real advantage in terms of cleaning under most conditions.
The only exceptions I list here for myself are

• flying sand (e.g. photographing in the dessert or on the beach)
• hot oil or rubber at racing events or
• fast flying and/or hot metal particles, e.g. in a workshop or industrial environment.

I have also read from someone doing professional air to air photography where he struggles with oil fog from histrorical airplanes. But even for him the most important thing is not lens protection as such, but the fact that quickly changing to a clean filter is much faster than cleaning the lens while in the air and in full action.

If I use a filter these, then it's just ND or polarizer. And after not using protection filters anymore I don't have to worry about taking them off before mounting the effecrt filter in order to avoid vignetting issues with stacked filters.
Another argument for me - as other people like at Photographylife doing some testing around filters - that cheap filters can severely impact IQ. So, the better your lens is, the better the filter has to be and that means spending money. A top nodge filter for the 500PF in 95mm isn't a bargain and why spending the money if there is no benefit ?