This Simple Tutorial Will Show You How to Add Filtration to Any Lens Ever Made
If you're anything like me, you probably spend some of your free time scouring sites like KEH and eBay for vintage lenses (and buying way more of them than you probably should). Occasionally, you come across lenses that, for all intents and purposes, are completely awesome minus one small flaw: they don't have a traditional filter thread. In those cases, shooting in extremely bright conditions can be impossible without stopping down to f/16 or f/22 since you can't attach a screw-on ND filter. Of course, a matte box is always a solution for this problem, but it's a solution that can get really expensive really quickly. Luckily, there's also a simple, quick, and inexpensive trick to help you block light on those tricky lenses.
This quick little video tutorial comes courtesy of Em at Cheesycam:
This solution is very similar to the process used when adding stockings to your lenses for a dreamy diffusion effect, and depending on the design of the rear element of the lens you're working on, snot tape might be a better solution than the spike tape used in this tutorial. Also, if you intend to use this method with DSLRs, then you'll need to be incredibly careful and make sure that the filter will stay put, because there's a possibility that it could come loose and wreak havoc on the camera's mirror.
Another potential drawback to this technique is that traditional optical filtration and lighting filtration (such as the Roscoe Filter Kit shown in the tutorial) are designed to different standards. As such, the image quality with this technique likely won't be as good as if you were using an actual ND in front of the lens. Additionally, if you're feeling a little experimental, you could also use any number of these specialized lighting filters on your rear element for unique in-camera coloration effects.
What do you guys think of this technique? Do you have any lenses where something like this would be necessary for blocking light? Are there other techniques for adding filters to lenses with no filter thread (other than matte boxes, of course)?
Link: Hack Tip: Using ND Filter Gels with Rokinon Fisheye Lens -- Cheesycam
[via Fstoppers]
