Overheard someone say stacking filters degrades image quality

I was at a local astronomy club meetup last Tuesday in Tucson and overheard this older guy telling a newbie that using more than two stacked filters on a DSLR starts to soften the stars. He said something like 'each layer adds a little blur that adds up.' I always thought more filters meant better data, so I tried taking some shots of the Orion Nebula with just one filter instead of three. The difference was tiny but real, the stars looked a bit sharper. Has anyone else noticed that or am I just seeing what I want to see?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewgonzalez6d ago

Ngl I used to stack everything I could on my camera thinking more filters = cleaner data, but this makes total sense now that you mention it. Definitely gonna try dropping a filter or two next time I'm out shooting.

dylanh976d ago

Wait you were just stacking filters on top of each other without checking how they interact? Like stacking a UV filter and a polarizer and a variable ND all at once? Dude that's wild. I bet your images looked like you were shooting through a dirty fish tank. At least now you know why your shots always had that weird haze or color shift.