Hoya Clear lens filter test

So here's a sample of my attempt at a slightly methodical testing of the effects of my hoya filter v.s. no filter. I wanted to see how much image quality I'd lose by using one (the reason I want a filter is to protect the lens). I couldn't find any other comparisons available so this might help anyone else thinking of buying one and wondering...

This is a plain old "Hoya HMC" clear filter, costed me about $20 (CAD) new off ebay ($10 for the lens, $10 for shipping).

Here's 4 pictures of some lines I drew and a bar code from a receipt lying around. 2 were taken with out a filter, and 2 were taken with the filter. The results of which are which are in the photo comments, but have a look at the picture first and see if you can tell which is which. It's uploaded as a PNG, so right click on the picture, download it, pixel peep it or what ever you want.

I'd be interested if anyone knows of a better way to easily and reproducibly test this. Personally, from a few pictures I've taken, I can't tell the difference with or without the lens filter on. Anyone else? comments?

To clarify, these are 100% crops, they are 1:1 pixel, not scaled down images.


The link to the image in the gallery with the comments on which is which is here : https://www.mu-43.com/gallery/scrap-heap/p1273-test2.html


The full size and comments can be seen here : https://www.mu-43.com/gallery/scrap-heap/p1289-test3.html

 

yes I used a tripod.

As for flare... that might be hard for me to check, if I were to take a picture of the sun, it'd move by the time I removed the filter, I should be able to get it close enough I guess. I'm not quite sure a lamp would do it - or maybe my lamps aren't strong enough. Maybe I'll give it a try tomorrow if the suns out.

As for being able to notice which pictures were sharper... I'm not sure, even after you said the left were sharper, honestly I don't have the eyes to notice it. Maybe after a few thousand more pictures I'll be able to discern more.

 

I was only really worried / testing because I read on another thread people going on about image quality issues etc. I'd used them before on my previous camera but I never gave it a second thought about quality issues. I figured I should check to see that I'm not severely crippling my camera setup or anything - for the same of protecting a relatively cheap lens. It's cloudy and gloomy today so I can't really get any samples but I'll try some out door / intense light photos as soon as I can.