The Ultimate Kenko UV Filter Review!

After publishing our dedicated reviews for a number of other UV lens filters over the last couple of months we have decided to publish our dedicated Kenko UV filter review. If you are one of our regular readers then you will probably know that we are massive fans of using a UV filter to help protect your front lens element during use from any potential accidents.

With Kenko being an established brand within the lens filter community, many photographers and videographers have picked up their filters over the years with many choosing to use them as their go-to UV filter brand of choice. This is usually due to the filters providing an excellent level of protection for your lens while not having any negative effect on the potential image quality that you can capture. Additionally, their low price tag also makes them the obvious choice when looking for a budget-friendly UV filter.

This has led to a large number of photographers and videographers choosing to post their own third-party, external review of the Kenko UV filter online. You can read some of these by clicking here if you want to get an independent insight into how the filter performs by people who use it as their goto lens filter of choice.

Click Here To Check For Current Prices On The Kenko UV Filter Range!

Table of Contents

Performance And Functionality

This photograph shows an expensive lens fitted with a cheap UV filter after an accident. As you can see, the element on the lens filter is destroyed but the front element of the lens under the filter is perfectly safe.

As you may have guessed from our into to the article, the Kenko UV filters make an excellent lens protector that can do an excellent job of protecting the front lens element of your lens during any accidents. This essentially acts as a sacrificial layer at the front of your lens as shown in the image above that shows a destroyed UV filter but a fully functioning front lens element.

Kenko has done this by using some of the best quality Japanese precision optical glass currently available on the market. This ensures that the filter element is as robust as humanly possible while also being very lightweight. If you are familiar with the various glass types used in filters and camera lenses then you may know that the Japanese precision glass is considered second only to German Schott glass with the Japanese product quickly catching up in terms of quality.

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The firm filter frame ensures that it offers a seamless fit to your lens threads when mounted keeping the filter fixed in place while keeping your image quality as high as possible. At the time of writing, the Filter UV lens filter range is currently available to fit the following lens filter thread sizes:-

37mm
39mm
40.5mm
43mm
46mm
49mm
52mm
55mm
58mm
62mm
67mm
72mm
77mm
82mm

As you can see, the range covers the most commonly used lens threads on the market right now as well as a large number of the less common thread sizes almost guaranteeing that you will be able to find a Kenko UV filter to fit your lens of choice.

The massive thread sizes the filter is offered in has helped Kenko push out ahead of some of the competing lenses on the market right now due to many photographers and videographers picking them up for a lens with an uncommon thread sizes, seeing how good the lens filter is and then picking them up for their lenses with more common thread sizes.

This has lead to a massive increase in the popularity of the filter brand over the years helping to quickly and relatively easily catch up with competing brands such as Hoya and Tiffen. Newer lens filter brands have also taken this approach with brands such as Gobe attempting to offer their filters in as many sizes as possible.

Build Quality

Although Kenko doesn’t give out much information on exactly what they do, the video above is the best publically released information on how the build their filter range and we feel it does a decent job of showing the amount of detail they put into their products. Just like the majority of the competing filter brands on the market right now, Kenko uses their unique multi-coating technology to help increase the performance of the filter.

Although they don’t confirm exactly what these coating layers are, we can safely presume that they are based around increasing the robustness of the filter element, wicking away water or dust to improve image quality, and increasing the life span of the filters.

Our Verdict

This brings our Kenko UV filter review to an end, although we are massive fans of the Gobe UV Filter range (Click here to check for product prices and availability) we do feel that the Kenko range is a solid and more budget-friendly choice. The Kenko filters do a great job of ensuring that the front lens element of your lens of choice is protected while not having any effect on the image quality of your photographs or video footage either. All in all, we feel the Kenko UV filter will make an excellent addition to your camera accessories.

Click Here To Read Independent Third Party Reviews Of This Product!

Click Here To Check For Prices On This Product!

Should You Use A UV Filter?

With the debate still raging on if you should or should not use a UV filter to protect your lens we thought we would share the video below as it echoes our thoughts and the importance of investing in a UV filter.