A simple solution- If you're not a purist

Dez

Dez

Bodger Extraordinaire
Local time
7:44 AM
Joined
May 12, 2009
Messages
1,537
Location
Mississauga, Ontario
View My Gallery
48mm lens caps for the 85/2.0 lens are very hard to find, and if one shows up, it will probably cost three figures. Get real, please, it's a LENS CAP.

I found a nice cheap solution on ebay. Apparently, one of the Nikon Coolpix cameras uses a 49mm lens cap, and for the sum of three bucks, I got one sent to me, with an added little doodad to put in your flash shoe and lose the first time you need flash or a viewfinder.

It turns out that the "49mm" is an approximation, and the cap fits my lens perfectly, with no modifications needed.

Nikkor85withcap.jpg


I suppose it's not exactly Kosher, but it says Nikon on it, and looks pretty good. There are loads of these things on ebay. And I'm sure I can find something useful to do with the money I save from buying the genuine article.

Cheers,
Dez
 
You're actually MORE likely to burn a hole through the shutter if you don't use a period correct OEM lens cap.

Don't question it, it's a fact.
 
Opportunities for ingenuity

Opportunities for ingenuity

The high cost of some accessories gives the frugal photographer all sorts of opportunities for ingenuity. I have an 8mm f2.8 fisheye for my F cameras, and never had the cap. The glass bulges out so far on this lens that this is a real problem. Tupperware to the rescue!😀 It turns out that there is a nice round-bottomed Tupperware bowl which fits just fine. The plastic is quite slippery however, so it's a bit of a chore to get it on and off, but it does a good job of protecting the glass!

No picture, unfortunately- I don't have the lens handy at the moment. I sent it away to an ebay vendor who still has genuine AI conversion kits for it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170358603875&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Cheers,
Dez
 
Dez said:
The high cost of some accessories gives the frugal photographer all sorts of opportunities for ingenuity. I have an 8mm f2.8 fisheye for my F cameras, and never had the cap. The glass bulges out so far on this lens that this is a real problem. Tupperware to the rescue!😀 It turns out that there is a nice round-bottomed Tupperware bowl which fits just fine. The plastic is quite slippery however, so it's a bit of a chore to get it on and off, but it does a good job of protecting the glass!

No picture, unfortunately- I don't have the lens handy at the moment. I sent it away to an ebay vendor who still has genuine AI conversion kits for it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170358603875&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Cheers,
Dez
Click to expand...

In addition to the previously mentioned spice bottle cap on the 85, that lens's back cap was made from the innards of a child-proof safety cap from a prescription medicine bottle and the cap from a roll-on deodorant bottle.
My Nikkor 28 3.5 is capped with the soft plastic cap from a bottle of fruit drink, and my 35 1.8 is also capped with a spice bottle cap.

My SLR lenses are mostly hooded and so I made hood caps for many of them as well.
35~105 has a hood cap made from the metal lid of a fancy neck-tie container.
My 17~28 is capped with the lid from a can of tennis balls, my 19 3.8 with a soft plastic lid used to re-cap opened soda pop cans.
35 f2 capped with a cut-off section of a plastic rubbing alcohol bottle, and 24 2.8 has a Penatin Baby's Bum Cream can lid for a front cap.
Virtually all of these can be obtained by taking the lens and or hood with you on stroll along the aisles of a Pharmacy or Supermarket.
Shimming to take up slack with Dymo label tape, and removal of threads (for the more adventurous or handy-types) with a Dremmel tool.
Virtually any photographic accessory that has the pre-fix "Photo" or "Camera" on its label will cost you many times more than a similar object found in the Hardware or Home Renovation Center, so why spend tons of money for easily-misplaced bits like caps when you can essentially get them for nothing as the by-products of many items you'd purchase anyway?
 
Last edited:
Hi Rbsinto....

Now THAT is really cool. It must be a Canadian thing. Me, I'm actually from Mississauga, working in Minnesota after the implosion of Nortel.

Cheers,
Dez
 
Dez said:
Hi Rbsinto....

Now THAT is really cool. It must be a Canadian thing. Me, I'm actually from Mississauga, working in Minnesota after the implosion of Nortel.

Cheers,
Dez
Click to expand...
Mississauga huh? You must have been really bad in a previous life.
About the home-made caps and such, I don't believe it's a trait exclusive to Canadians. I'm a handy person and just like to tinker and if I want a piece of gear and it doesn't exist, I'll just make it myself. Caps that go on hooded lenses, for example.
And when it comes to simple things like front and back caps, I resent being over-charged a few thousand percent for fifteen cents worth of moulded plastic because it says "Nikon" on it.
 
Last edited:
As an aside, Dez's 85 looks exactly like mine, steel with the aperture and focusing rings very close together, which causes not end of problems as the apertures (without detents) often tend to get moved as focus is adjusted.
After researching whether detents could be retro-fitted, and what the approximate cost of a later version of this lens would cost if I could even find one I took the plunge and fixed it myself.
I cut the knurled end ring off of a rubber lens hood, trimmed it to the correct width and glued it to the focusing ring. Now I can easily find the ring by touch and can turn it without disturbing the aperture ring.
More grist for the Collectors' Mills.
 
Last edited:
My 85/1.8 F mount has a Tupperware cap on the lens hood. My 180 and 300s that I've had over the years (72mm filter) have had dog food or syrup lid (yellow, bright blue) over it. My old 24/2.8 has a long ago out of business yoguart lid on it. My old leica 39mm filter size glass had a cap from anothter food product, cubes of some time. My CV SL II glass lens caps were partial to baking power can lids.

It's so the way to go!

B2 (;->
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom