Gear Talk > What the Nerds Do

Nikon 39mm drop in filters, DIY mod of gel filter holders

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toups:
I recently acquired a nice 600mm f/5.6 ED IF AI lens at a price point I couldn't pass up.  It came with a gel filter holder (with no filter element) installed.  In spite of the Nikon claim that the lens is designed to be used with a filter, I do not believe that image quality could be positively impacted by using a filter.  The 39mm slide in normal filter holder and the C-PL1S polarized filter filter are pretty much "unobtanium." Also the filter holder only works with the special Nikon 39mm filters.  Strangely enough, the gel filter holders are very cheap and relatively easy to find.

I have managed to acquire an additional pair of gel filter holders fairly inexpensively (less than $15 US each.)  My plans are to machine the holders to take 40.5mm filters which are reasonably common.  I'm not sure that I have a great need for filters with this lens, except for a circular polarized filter. 

So my plan is to mill off the back surface of the holder after removing the thin gel holder to make room for a 40.5mm filter.  So basically the filter holder will be mounted reversed from how the gel holder is normally inserted.  One could be a simple 40.5mm filter holder that could take standard 40.5mm filters while the other would emulate a C-PL1S.

Not sure I have an easy way to cut the needed filter threads but will cross that bridge later.

I have a Neewer 40.5mm Polarizing Filter Ultra Slim arriving next week.  So the thought is to machine the gel holder, and thread or glue the filter to the holder.  Will mill a slot for a small thumb wheel to rotate the filter.  Will see if I need an idler gear or rubber roller to rotate the filter.

One interesting observation, is that the gel filter holders I recently acquired do not have any screws on the top side while the one that came with the lens has 2 screws on top.  So the former ones should be more convenient for milling a slot for a thumb wheel.

I'll post pictures and updates when I can find time to proceed with this project.

I suppose someone with a 3-D printer could also easily design and emulate a C-PL1S but I figure it will be just as quick for me to machine down an existing gel filter holder.

Birna Rørslett:
I'm glad to be ensured I own a piece of 'unobtanium' .... aka C-P1S :) using this with 300/2.8 ED-IF Ais, 500/4Ai-P and the 600/5.6 ED-IF. The polariser is surprisingly effective for landscape scenes with these long lenses. And are the drop-in filter holders really that rare? I have a number of them. If these also are classified as 'unobtanium' I must be very lucky then? The 39mm filter set is shared ith the 500 Mirror lenses if memory serves, at least that was the route by which they arrived to me.

Otherwise, I agree that a filter in the little holder isn't strictly necessary. Nikon is very conservative of behalf on the users. It does prevent some dust inside, though.

I mounted a B+W IR filter 39mm in one of the holders so these lenses can be used for IR photography. By the way, the 600/5.6 ED-IF is very good for IR.

toups:
Maybe not completely unobtanium for either, but the price point can be a bit to a lot higher than I like.  Actually there is a C-PL1S located in Japan on eBay for over half of what the lens cost me.  So one can still obtain one at the moment and maybe I am spoiled by my lens purchase price.

Actually I also couldn't pass up a Nikkor 500mm f/8 Reflex C lens with its set of filters. Now I  just need to remember where I safely stored the spare filters.

Regarding whether a filter is necessary, I played around a little bit in the OSLO EDU ray tracing software and for a long perfect lens, I don't see any real measurable changes in image quality by placing a plane parallel piece of glass at that point in the image path other than shifting the focus point by a fraction of the filter thickness.  Agree one role of the filter may be to keep dust out.

Thanks for the note regarding IR and the 600/5.6.  Very interesting!

P.S. Thanks for reminding me what the best camera is.   ;D

ARTUROARTISTA:

--- Quote from: Birna Rørslett on February 23, 2025, 10:45:56 ---I'm glad to be ensured I own a piece of 'unobtanium' .... aka C-P1S :) using this with 300/2.8 ED-IF Ais, 500/4Ai-P and the 600/5.6 ED-IF. The polariser is surprisingly effective for landscape scenes with these long lenses. And are the drop-in filter holders really that rare? I have a number of them. If these also are classified as 'unobtanium' I must be very lucky then? The 39mm filter set is shared ith the 500 Mirror lenses if memory serves, at least that was the route by which they arrived to me.

Otherwise, I agree that a filter in the little holder isn't strictly necessary. Nikon is very conservative of behalf on the users. It does prevent some dust inside, though.

I mounted a B+W IR filter 39mm in one of the holders so these lenses can be used for IR photography. By the way, the 600/5.6 ED-IF is very good for IR.

--- End quote ---
Birna, can I do IR with a Nikon D750? I have never done infrared photography and would like to try.

Birna Rørslett:

--- Quote from: ARTUROARTISTA on February 23, 2025, 21:40:03 ---Birna, can I do IR with a Nikon D750? I have never done infrared photography and would like to try.

--- End quote ---

I don't think that'll work well, as long as the original internal AA/anti-IR filter is in place. Older Nikons such as the D70 and similar unmodified cameras allowed IR shooting, however exposure times were long and images became noisy.

There are several companies which can modify most cameras for either IR, UV, or "full spectrum".

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