In article <33eb0fef.27138718@news.jaring.my>, yongi@pl.jaring.my says...

>Can anyone suggest what the first filters I buy should be? I have an
>EOS 500 and switch between b/w and colour film.

For color or B & W, a UV for lens protection (and nothing else,
reports to the contrary notwithstanding...;-). If you prefer the
slightly warmer effect of the Skylight filter applied to all slides
(only) shot through it, buy the Skylight filter instead of the
neutral UV. For B & W only, an orange filter can be useful (the
yellow filters do little or nothing but eat effective film speed,
unless the sky is VERY clear), and the red can be a bit much for
general use (and uses up about three stops of available effective
film speed [the orange takes about two stops...]). Some people like
polarizers, but I rarely use them (the artificial-looking color
resulting from using them is instantly recognizeable in color
photos - though the polarizer can be useful for reducing/removing
reflections in both B & W and color photos). With your camera, buy
a circular polarizer, if you buy one at all. (There is a 1 1/2 to
2 stop effective film speed loss when using a polarizer...). If
you shoot color slide film under artificial light (2/3 to 1 stop
overexposure of negative films can provide good results without
filtration...), I prefer the partial (warm) correction of the 80C tungsten-correction filter, and for flourescents, a cc30Magenta
generally works better than the generally-recommended FL-D filter
(though the FL-D works well when there is some daylight mixed with
the flourescent light).
Hope This Helps
(David Ruether - http://www.fcinet.com/ruether )