Ever had a filter stuck to the front of your favorite lens? It’s like your best lens is stopped down in perpetuity or a programmed to polarize even in overcast conditions. The usual attempt to dislodge the filter is to twist, smack it on a hard surface in frustration, or try to use pliers, leading to more frustration. The Kuldunov Brothers bring forth an interesting and easy method to get a filter off your camera lens:
First, tap lightly on the filter.
Then attempt to unscrew it.
Usually, it doesn’t work the first or second time. It can take a really long time. But it does work. So, wear your patience hat and keep tapping. And then tap some more.
And then finally, like some voodoo magic, the filter that once seemed fused together with your favorite lens, will unscrew and come off.
Have you given this a try? Did it work?
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A set of ‘lens spanners’ costs next to nothing and, in my experience, always work.
I picked up a Pentax Spotmatic 35mm film camera for two bucks at a garage sale. It had been dropped with the filter attached. The filter was broken. I used my Dremel Moto-tool to grind down the filter ring so that I could get hold of it with needle-nose pliers. Then I just turned the camera over and shook it. Careful use of a lens brush completed the job. This was many years ago when I used film cameras.
I had a lens stuck once. For months. Would not screw off. Though about trying to somehow warm the lens up and/or get the filter cold, but never got around to trying anything. Then one day, it just popped off. Didn’t even have to unscrew it.
place filter on a mouse pad, push down gently and twist counter clockwise. This always works for me.
I always keep rubber bands in my bag. Put one around the filter and it will screw right off easily.