The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

M-lens cap on or off

gooomz

Member
i am used to putting my lens cap back on after shots throughout the day with my contax cameras, but now that i am shooting with an M lens just wondering if many Leica shooters do this, or is it wise to leave the lens cap off all the time so your ready for the next moment?

i don't like using uv filters so i am thinking my glass will get dirty quickly if walk around with no lens cap on not to mention might scratch up my glass inadvertently scary thought.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I fit a lens hood. No caps, no filters. And keep a hand-bulb blower in my camera bag to blow the dust off.
 

250swb

Member
Some Leica lenses have collapsible hoods, so to keep things the same for all I have protection or UV filters on all my lenses and leave the lens caps in the bag or at home. I think of a filter as a consumable, so clean it quickly in the field without worrying about grit etc. Its saves a lot of phaffing about. That said I use B&W MRC filters and have never scratched one and they will probably outlast me.

Steve
 

Double Negative

Not Available
I have hoods for pretty much all of my lenses, and I always use them.

Lens caps are on all the time except on the lens I'm out shooting with; and only for the duration (the day, the event, whatever). I take it off when I go out shooting and put it back on when I'm done/get home.

I used to subscribe to the whole UV filter thing, but I don't use them anymore except on weathersealed L lenses (Canon). So I'm a little more protective with the cap.
 

ramosa

Member
This is an interesting thread. I think I'm hyper-protective. I always use filters on my M8--and, even more, always have a lens cap. And I tend to put the lens cap back on if I'm not actively shooting. I always view it as a means to discouraging dust ...
 

gooomz

Member
for those that use a uv filter and no lens cap:

do you do this so you dont have to keep putting your cap on and off and keeping track of it because that is pretty annoying sometimes, or do you rock no cap just so your always ready to shoot and the glass is still protected?

anyone use no cap or uv filter and just lens hoods throughout a shoot day?
 

weinschela

Subscriber Member
For the lens on the camera, no lens cap. In the bag, lens caps on both ends. Cap for lens being used stays in bag. And UV filters too, though I sometimes have second thoughts about that.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
godfrey, no uv, no cap, just hood, walking around the city all day no problem?
Correct. Been doing that with most of my cameras for thirty years or more now.

Here's me walking in Manhattan on a rainy day in May, carrying the GXR ... I only put the lens cap on when it was raining that day. Or I stuffed it under my vest .. ! :)


(Using the GXR, I cap the lens module I'm not using when it goes in the bag because the 50mm's retractable hood retracts, the 28mm's hood is pretty shallow. This leaves the lens front element pretty close to the edge of the lens, so a cap to keep it from kissing other things in the bag is a sensible precaution. While the camera is around my neck, whatever lens is on it stays uncapped and ready to shoot with. Similarly, I'll cap SLR or M lenses going into the bag when it makes sense to do so because of the nature of their front element's exposure to the rest of the contents of the bag ... but usually a fixed hood precludes having to do that, I just drop the lens into a pocket in the bag, hood down, and put a back cap on it.)

Once upon a time I used UV filters for protection ... They never protected anything and did cause some image degradation from time to time. Also, I noticed that a very fine silty dust built up inside the filter/front element chamber, meaning I had to clean both the filter and the lens more often. I just stopped using them. My lenses stay pretty clean, much cleaner then when I fit filters to them in general. Most of what settles on the lens just blows away with the hand bulb blower.
 
S

Simon Seven

Guest
Dusty lenses still take pictures, capped lenses miss pictures.
Carry a small blow-brush in your pocket too...

regards.
 
Top