Filter Size?

[480sparky43 42]

Maybe this will clarify things:

I have 10 lenses, which take filter sizes from 77mm to 52mm. Instead of buying a bunch of cheap filters in each of the 5 sizes, I pony up for 3 top-end 77mm filters. In my case, it's a B+W Thin C-PL, B+W ND 10-stop, and a Singh-Ray Vario-Duo variable ND.

All three will fit my 17-35, 24-120 and 70-200 without a ring. This accounts for 95% of my shooting.

For my 24-85 G and 28-200 D Streetsweeper, I use the 72-77 step ring. For my 70-300 and Tokina 17, I use the 67-77 ring.

My 50/1.8 G is the only lens that takes 58mm, but I still have a 58-77 step ring. The 105 micro and 50/1.8 D both use 52mm, so I have a 52-77 step ring.


Step rings are much much much much cheaper than filters, although I must confess that I carry a 52-77 and 58-77 Heliopans into the field. They're much more expensive ($60, as opposed to the $10 the plastic and aluminum versions run) but they're brass and won't bind.... which is important to me in the field. I use the cheapie ones around the house.

The biggest down-side is that by using step rings, you may not be able to use the factory petal hood.


This arrangement allows my to carry only 3 filters. Although 77mm filters get pricey simply due to their physical size, it sure beats ponying up for 3 top-end 77mm filters, 3 top-end 72mm filters, 3 top-end 67mm filters, 3 top-end 58mm filters and 3 top-end 52mm filters!

 

[jmtonkin]

That makes perfect sense, and I'm glad that I went with the largest filter so I can use it will both of my lenses.


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[Gavjenks]

Is there any quality loss with the step-up rings? I'm just wondering.

Even if the rings are large enough for the lens, there is a slight possibility of vignetting if you try to use a whole cone of them on an extraordinarily wide lens. The angle of the cone of rings is like maybe 30 degrees I wanna say? so a lens with wider angle of view than that might run into issues (roughly wider than 30mm full frame)

This is easily solved by using step up rings more like the ones in the image above, that jump several steps at a time and thus achieve much shallower "cones" or just require one ring only. I'm talking only about if you're a cheapskate like me who changes lenses all the time and uses 7 rings on a lens to get it up to 77mm.