[DMH]

I have SMC 18 - 55mm, SMC 50 - 200 and SMC A 50mm 1.7 with have 52mm, and 49mm filter ring sizes. Is an adapter available for my 50mm lens if I buy polarizing and ND filters for my zooms? And, if so, does the added distance of the adapter have any impact on the function of the filter?

Thanks, David

[Lowell Goudge]

I have SMC 18 - 55mm, SMC 50 - 200 and SMC A 50mm 1.7 with have 52mm, and 49mm filter ring sizes. Is an adapter available for my 50mm lens if I buy polarizing and ND filters for my zooms? And, if so, does the added distance of the adapter have any impact on the function of the filter?

Thanks, David

there are filter adaptor rings, and they usually permit stepping up/down in increments of 1 size, i.e. 49-52, 52-55 etc. Which might lead to "stacking the adaptor rings. There are also tools to separate filters from them. Maybe I should say were, I bought these 20+ years ago, Eventually I gave up and bought correct filters for each lens.

You need to be careful especially on wide angle lenses with them, they can lead to vignetting. You are now discovering the concept behind the pentax M series where as many lenses as possible used 49mm filters. To keep attachments the same.

[DMH]

Thanks, Lowell, I'll try to locate an adapter. You bring up a good point; if the cost of the adapter approches the cost of the filter, buying one seems pointless. The 49mm filters seem not to be regularly stocked items. I see you're in TO too. Do you know of a good used camera store that may carry used filters etc? I used flm SLRs years ago so I'm starting over again.

[MPrince]

Step-up or step-down rings are cheap, and should be available at any camera store. Most of my filters are 58mm, and I have two step-up rings, 49-58 and 52-58. I think I paid $10 for both.

The only downfall to using the rings is you can't use the lens hood, but not that big a deal in my view.

Vignetting can be a problem when using step-down rings, should not be a problem using step-up rings.

[shutterdrone]

Step-up rings are cheap. And highly useful. $10 is an expensive one, IMO =) (Most of the ones I've got I paid about $5 for - it probably depends on your local shop.)

A couple of thoughts:

1) on the filters that are "less than the best", you can get degraded image quality near the edges of the filter. If the edges of the filter are way outside of the viewing angle of the lens - you lose this problem. (58mm filters on a 49mm front element) [I've heard this is a common practice in film-making... but their filters cost hundreds to thousands, so... who knows?]

2) if you have a lens with a big element (62mm?) and a bunch of lenses with smaller elements, buy one 62mm filter and step-up rings for all of your other lenses. Save lots of money.

3) You can often find used step-up rings with used filters in camera shops. If you find them cheap and used - buy a whole bunch of them. Never know when they'll come in handy.

I carry one of each filter (cpol, couple of ND's, R72) in my largest size (72mm) and step-up rings stay attached to each extra lens I take with me. Buy extra 72mm lens caps in the used filter/caps section. Everything's ready to go when I go out shooting.

!c

[MPrince]

Step-up rings are cheap. And highly useful. $10 is an expensive one, IMO =) (Most of the ones I've got I paid about $5 for - it probably depends on your local shop.)

!c

Clearly, I was unclear I meant $10 combined for both of my step up rings, not $10 each.