ND Filter for HMC40

H

Heartfelt

Well-known member
After research here and speaking to BH Photo Video, I ordered a 43mm ND filter for this camera. I just saw in another thread that someone claimed there were no threads on the camera for a ND filter.

Can anyone confirm this for me?

My cam is borrowed and I don't have it available to check.
Rob
 
The lens is threaded 43mm. The other message referred to the wide angle adapter, which screws into the lens but has no front filter threads of its own (a really dumb design oversight, IMHO).

- Greg
 
Awesome. Thanks.

So what I misread was intended to imply that once a wide angle adapter was put on, the adapter had no threads?
 
I'm nearing the end of the semester at El Camino College, so this will have to wait until AFTER all the classes I'm teaching are finished, but I did pick up a Tiffen 46mm ND Kit with ND 0.6 (2 stops), ND 0.9 (3 stops) and ND 1.2 (4 stops). In addition I got a 43mm (camera) ---> 46mm (filter) conversion adapter.

It appears that I can stack up 2 filters and leave the lens shade on; however, I do need to remove the lens shade to change the filters.

The tests with the filters will need to wait for another 2 weeks, but as soon as I can, I'll run some tests on this kit and report it here in the forum.


Bob Diaz
 
Heartfelt said:
Awesome. Thanks.

So what I misread was intended to imply that once a wide angle adapter was put on, the adapter had no threads?
Click to expand...


Correct. And in general, I would argue it's not a good idea to use filters between the lens and the WA adapter, since that moves the adapter farther from the front lens element than it is designed to operate optimally. So unless you use something like a matte box with (expensive) drop-in square filters, you can't properly shoot wide angle and with filters at the same time.

One of these days I will try to find out if there's a clamp-on device that could add a filter thread to the front of the wide adapter, or see if I can fabricate one myself.

- Greg
 
Here's the solution I came up with:

1) Bought the Panasonic VWW4307HPPK 0.7X conversion lens (very sharp, but no front thread)

2) Bought a generic 72mm thread rubber lens hood, removed the metal threaded ring, and glued the rubber hood to the adapter, with the front of the hood pushed back a few mm from the front edge of the lens.

3) Bought a cheap Chinese 77mm filter off EBay, threw away the filter disk itself, and slipped the 77mm metal ring over the front of the Panasonic lens. The ring was already a tight fit .. adding a few few dabs of glue allowed me screw it back firmly until it sat tight and flush with the front of the rubber hood.

4) Since the filter has a front thread (i.e. for stacking multiple filters) I can now fit a 77m ND filter as needed (I can recommend a Hoya Zeta - comes with a handy dandy clamshell case).

Here's a photo of the setup - as it happens the lens cap for the Panasonic lens pushes on quite firmly inside the 77mm ring, which solved that problem. The ND filter sits quite a way forward so you do need to be scrupulous about keeping dust off it, or else you will see images of that dust show up in your footage.

HMC40-ND.jpg
pencil.png
 
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Thanks, GrahamH!

From your description, I'm not quite certain whether the rubber lens hood is an essential part of the filter mount, or just something you wanted to use as an actual shade. It sounds like the modified 77mm filter ring is the only part needed just to add a filter thread to the adapter. Is that correct, or does one depend on the other somehow?

Anyway, I'm impressed and will follow up on this idea. And, good note about dust on the filter. I might not have thought of that.

- Greg
 
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Greg Smith said:
Thanks, GrahamH!

I'm not quite certain whether the rubber lens hood is an essential part of the filter mount, or just something you wanted to use as an actual shade.- Greg
Click to expand...

Greg, with strong glue it might be possible to just use the ring. However the shade does give 'back support' to the ring and so makes me more confident that it won't get jarred loose if I bump it. Also, the adapter lens is somewhat prone to flare so I would still recommend using some sort of lens hood with it whenever possible.

Edit: I should add, the hood is quite shallow and does not provide much shade from front-angle sun. However it is right on the verge of vignetting when the camera/adapter combo is zoomed to its widest setting. There are '3-position' rubber hoods http://cgi.ebay.com/72mm-3-section-...436?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e637a8bc4 that might work better than the one I chose, which was more like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/72mm-Rubber-Len...009?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53df1f9701
 
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Easy version wideangle/hood screw for filters

Easy version wideangle/hood screw for filters

Ok guys this is what I did, the wide angle is the VW-W4607 THAT IS MUCH SHARPER,
than the VW-4307 , since I had both and sold the 4307. to this lens y added the
Cavision lens hood :
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/434539-REG/Cavision_LH77_LH77_Lens_Hood.html
To make a snug fit I added some magnetic tape to the hood, and if I want is possible to use
any 82 mm filter.

hmc40anglehood.jpg
 
In an earlier post, I mentioned using a CineTactics matte box on the standard 43mm Panny WA adapter. I have come to think this is one of the better options for a WA lens hood. They also make a filter holder that attaches to the velcro on the inside of the matte box. They mention fitting Cokin filters, which aren't my first choice, and are a bit oddball at 66x72mm. So that might be a drawback if you prefer more expensive glass. I'll give this a try over the next few weeks and report back.

Grant

http://www.cinetactics.com/-strse-1/Matteblox-DV/Detail.bok
 
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