Filters for Panasonic FZ30

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to photography and just wanted some advice about filters to get
for my FZ30 camera. I've been reading about different types and i
understand what they do but what i'm confused about is sizes. I need a
protection filter and a graduated filter for contrast fixing between sky
and ground.

Which ones should I get?

Thanks in advance.

Dan

In article <4427d811$0$8333$da0feed9@news.zen.co.uk>,
Dan <dantum.TakeThisOut@lazysodz.com> wrote:

> Hi Everyone,
>
> I'm new to photography and just wanted some advice about filters to get
> for my FZ30 camera. I've been reading about different types and i
> understand what they do but what i'm confused about is sizes. I need a
> protection filter and a graduated filter for contrast fixing between sky
> and ground.
>
> Which ones should I get?

Your camera takes 55mm filters.
A polarizing filter is pretty indispensible if you do outdoor shooting
on sunny days, to reduce glare and darken the sky. For starting out, you
don't need to spend a lot on it. Or, if you take the long view, get a
good multicoated one because you'll probably have it for longer than the
camera.

If you shoot where salt spray, dust, etc. are blowing, then one of the
IR or clear 'protection' filters can reduce lens cleaning.

They make screw-on neutral grads, but nobody stocks them around here, so
I guess it's an order item. You often want to shift the density gradient
up or down to block just the bright overcast sky or snow, so I don't
know if a fixed one would be as useful as the Cokin filter holder
system. I use the latter for video, which seems to need it more, but the
FZ30 has reasonable latitude. I'd hold off on the ND grad until you get
more practice with the camera.

Photoshop Elements has more software filters than any one mortal needs,
so this would be my main recommendation after the polarising filter.