Brucer Loc: Bedminster, NJ

Recently, I took my B + W Kaiserman 52mm circular polarizer off my prime lens and left it behind on a rock. In my advancing age, I'm very careful to check where I've shooting after I load my bag, but this once, memory slipped. Rather than spending so much money on another, I'm considering a 52mm to 67mm step-up ring.

Three questions: Does the added distance from the lens of a 67mm filter on the step-up adversely affect image quality? 2. Does any additional thickness of the 67mm filter, compared to a 52mm filter affect image quality? I wonder if it is thicker. 3. This is the easy question--don't all step-up rings accommodate all filters. (I want to buy a Bower step-up ring.)

Thanks for any help you can offer and I hope my topic is of interest.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The rings don't cause an issue when you mean putting a 'wider' diameter filter onto a smaller diameter lens. That distance change is just a few millimeters added by the step-up/down ring. For example, there are filters that attach to the lens hood rather than the lens filter thread. That's a difference of inches, with no issue.

uhaas2009

Step up isn’t any problem. I bought the one made out of brass-easy to unscrew filter

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Brass is definitely a preferred material for this application, as opposed to aluminum.
--Bob

Brucer Loc: Bedminster, NJ

Thanks for the reply. And do you know if a 67mm filter is thicker than a 52mm? It seems counterintuitive that there would be any problem. Because if there's a "problem" with the thickness--then there's that same problem when I use the 67mm on my 70-200 zoom. Don't see how it could be any other way.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I read you to mean "thicker" as the added distance of the ring between the filter and the lens threads. Although different 'thin' models exist for some filters brands, the diameter of the filter circle has nothing to do with the thickness of the filter, for the same 'model' filter.

Wide angle lenses are most likely to be impacted by a 'thick' filter, and even then, the occurrence is rare.

The only drawback of rings I've even countered is the inability to mount the lens hood with the ring and larger filter installed. This proved enough of an issue, in fact, that I mostly have filters for each of my lens diameters rather than rings and less filters. For a 52mm lens, the rings and wider filters actually form a pseudo hood as well as my oldest lenses at 52mm don't have hoods. Using rings here are a bit more typical in my approach.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

In high-quality filters, the thickness of the glass has no adverse effect on picture quality. There are some VERY thin filters that are designed to avoid vignetting on very wide-angle focal lengths. Except for certain wide-angle lenses, some additional distance between the filter and the front element should not cause any issues. Use only high-quality brass adapters and retaining rings

Forgetmenot tip: I am an old guy too and still drag lots of gear to work. Even as a young guy, I wanted to make sure I came home with what I had packed. I didn't want to forget something at the studio or accidentally leave stuff on the location. So, I got in the habit of making lists. I printed out a form with check boxes- in and out.

After a long shoot, especially on a hot day, I am always in a hurry to pack up and get back to the a/c. The list takes just a minute to check off- well worth it, especially nowadays with the process of good stuff.

Murphies law of lost gear- Anythg you lose on a job is usually somethg that can not be replaced, made in "Africa by the Ants", long discotuinued, and has to be custom made at a machine shop at a high cost!

Brucer Loc: Bedminster, NJ

It would make sense that different diameter filters have the same thickness of glass. I was thrown for this loop by a comment someone made on a different forum, implying that the wider the diameter of the filter, the thicker the glass in-between, which really makes no sense.

Brucer Loc: Bedminster, NJ

I hear you about irreplaceability!

Thanks for the advice on the brass ring. I would be afraid the filter might get stuck in a ring of lesser quality.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

They're probably an UHH member too ...

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I am not an optical eingeneer but I do know that different filters are manufactured in various ways. Some filters are "dyed in the wool" so to speak or actually dyed in the glass. Others are "sandwiches" of glees, foils, grids or whatever. This may influence the thickness- I never used a micrometre to measure! There might be some "physics" that says that a larger filter needs to be a thinker but I am not aware of that.

Nowadays, I do not worry too much about filters. In the film days, I had literally drawers full of them for colour conversion and correction, polarization, various tonal panchromatic renditions in black and white, and special ettects. These days I get away with just a few. I use a couple of polarizers, a hand full of good old red, green, yellow and orange filters for contrast control in monochrome, a few NDs, and a few clear protection modes for hazardous working conditions. colr issues are easily controlled by in-camear white balance adjustment and tweaks in post-processing.

The other day, I was cleaning out the filter drawer and put all the step-up/ down, adapter and retaining rings on a giant key ring- now I have to buy another giant key ring.

I always stuck with B+W, Sing-Ray and Zeiss- never had an issue of IQ loss or mechanical problems.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

1. NO 2. NO 3. YES

ecobin Loc: Paoli, PA

I use step up rings for a few on my lenses (I have high quality CPL filters for my larger lenses) and haven't had any issues. I suggest that you also purchase a rubber lens hood to fit on the filter. It will serve three purposes: prevent extraneous light; protect lens/filter; and allow you to easily rotate the CPL filter. I have three rubber hoods specifically to allow easy rotation of the CPL filter.

Canisdirus

You are probably better off with a larger filter.
All lenses, filters included, can get into trouble around their respective edges.
By using a larger filter, you avoid that issue.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

No. It’s fairly common practice to just buy filters to fit your largest diameter lens and use step up rings with all the other lenses.