CV 15/4.5 filter recommendations?

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Getting a CV 15/4.5 when my new 250th Anniversary Bessa R3M comes and wondered about filter recommendations. This will be primarily used for landscape/nature shots, so maybe a center filter and/or circular polarizer (Stephen Gandy's recommendation on polarizers), plus??? Current users, your thoughts, please! (Also, do I buy the 77mm adapter that fits the 12/5.6 and adapt it, or do you have other ideas, based on your experiences?
 
If you take a 49-72 (or77mm) filter adapter and drill holes in the big flange around the center you can look through a polarizer just like the lens does. The setup looks kinda like an old rotary-dial telephone. To fit the adapter on the lens add a little self-adhesive felt and it fits very well.
Vignetting only occurs near wide-open though. So I use that extra feature when needed.
For landscaping especially a level is a good extra. I have a tiny round level glued to the side of my finder.
I use the lens in portrait position usually because of the extending effect of the sides of the frame. That tends to be too much in landscape position, but less so in portrait.
 
Terence T said:
If it's mainly landscapes and stills, you could do what I do. Hand hold a filter in front of the lens when you're taking the shot. Works great.
Click to expand...

I do it the same way! 😀
Just hold a square Cokin on th front.
 
Thanks folks! Anybody use a center filter for this lens or the 12mm? They're ridiculously expensive (to me, anyway!) but I've seen a recommendation by Alain Briot and Michael Reichmann to use one with the 12mm in particular. Thoughts? Or adapt one of your elegant solutions instead?
 
I have the 12mm so some of this will apply equally to the 15mm and some may not, anyway this is how it looks after using it for about eight months
Unfiltered I’ve had surprisingly little trouble with vignetting even “wide open” so don’t intend getting a centre neutral.
With these extreme wide angles you would expect the effect of the filter to become far more pronounced as the angle of the light in relation to the filter increased out into the corners of the frame (I have a vague recollection this is actually called the “helier effect”) and I think I can just about detect that in the prints, so strong filters would be more of a problem.
The polarising filter that I expected to be very useful has one big disadvantage as in practise the wide FOV means the polarization in the sky changes within the view and causes some novel shading effects.
The most useful for me has been a KB6 that I’ve tended to use both morning/evening and indoors to take some of the red out of the multiple light sources you seem to get in every other shot, not sure how practical a KB12 will be.
 
I don't use a center filter; with B+W's the light falloff with the 15mm is manageable and often looks pleasing. I do use color filters though, and feel that not being able to attach them is, er, poor engineering.
Since I only have the 15mm and a Bessa L, the lens never comes off the camera. One day, I'd had enough of the filterless blues and went and hid in the barn rather than the darkroom.
The fix is a piece of .08" aluminum sheet, a 58mm filter's butchered frame and a 58mm-77mm step up ring. The piece of sheet is bent 90 degrees, has a 1.75"
hole to fit over the lens hood on one plane and a .25" hole on the other where the tripod screw holds it to the camera's base. The 58mm filter frame was welded over the middle of the 1.75" hole to accept the step up ring.
Searching the local camera store's junk bin, I found a hermaphrodite 1/4-20 screw, so the filter mount can be left on the camera, the tripod bolting to the "head" of the screw. I also added two standoffs to keep the filter from hitting the lens hood in an accident.
The results work beautifully, though it took several hours to make and required some very delicate welding. I wouldn't attempt the project without access to a TIG welding machine and a fair amount of experience.
The attached images show the contraption, with and without the step up ring and filter.
 
Images...

Images...

O.K., if I was computer savvy would I be shooting B+W? Anyhow, here they are.
 

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The results...

The results...

The Bessa/ 15 combination and Fuji GS645S have become the contents of my "travel armed" bag. Here's an image with the Bessa, using an orange filter... handheld, of course.
 

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Bryce:
Nicely done! With skills like that, you SHOULD be computer savvy! Since I don't have access to a TIG, I'll tap some of my auto builder buddies and see if one of them can jury-rig something similiar! If so, I'll post it.
Thanks!
 
Some months ago I saw someone marketing a proper made filter adapter for the Voigtlander 15mm that clipped onto the hood. I will try look for a link when I can find it again and post it.
 
Bill-
The filter ends up square to the lens barrel as long as the bend in the sheet is truly 90 degrees and as long as the holes for the lens barrel and tripod screw intersect.
That said, it's probably not perfect- I didn't have access to a milling machine and a good vice. I used a drill press, bandsaw, carpenter's square and dial calipers to make the frame. Large prints seem sharp, clear and undistorted, so it's close enough to function.
 
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