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Lens protection advice

happyclickerbug

happyclickerbug

New Member
Hi everyone, I'm a new Ricoh GR user. I bought mine just yesterday :) I haven't used it much yet, aside from a few shots in my study and around the house. Loving it so far, but, it being a fixed lens camera, I would really prefer if the lens had a bit more protection since I intend to "baby" this camera for quite a while.

I have been looking around and found the "ACMAXX Multi-Coated LENS ARMOR UV FILTER for Ricoh GR" on eBay. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this type of lens protector? How will it potentially affect image quality?

Hoping for your thoughts and advice. Thanks.

Cheers :)
 
I don't quite understand why you would "insult" such I wonderful, sharp lens like the one on the GR by putting a piece of glass in front of it. The front element of the GR is slightly recessed and well protected by the lens tube anyway. UV filters in the digital photography age are a scam - nothing less. Scare tactics are used to cause people to spend tons of money on them...for nothing.

Of course, the above is merely my humble opinion having shot analog for over 25 years and digital for the last 10. If anyone really wants to spend money on useless and potentially IQ-degrading so-called "protection" or "UV" filters, they are quite welcome to do so.
 
In general I agree with newmikey and a while back ditched my UV filters from lenses. I do think there is a place for them however - especially if you are in particularly dusty or sea sprayed shooting environments.They have the benefit of being able to quickly wipe off dust and spray with a T shirt (bad practice yes, but reality sometimes)
I dont think the majority of people would notice the optical loss at all, but again, agree it will occur to some level.
For the Ricoh's, I have read many talk favourably about ACMAXX and would be interested to see some with and withouts. I suspect in usual lighting there wont be much in it, but harsh sun or angles to sun I would expect to see more flare.
 
I agree with HawkeyX totally. While it's not required usually, there is a place for the protection in certain situations. And I agree too that most will not even notice the marginal optical loss, but they will definitely notice a dust spot on the sensor, or a burnt spot on the glass due to fire crackers, or water droplets.

I just came back from a very dusty festival where fire crackers goes off at close range. (Phuket Vegetarian Festival) The extra protection is almost essential. Even with the filter on, I had dust spots on the sensor after that. I'm sending the camera in for sensor cleaning soon.

I'm very keen on hearing any reviews on ACMAXX myself. :)
 
I of course have nothing against filters as protection in a harsh environment, as long as they come off afterwards. Just too damn easy to leave them on all the time - which is what most people end up doing, then defending as a sensible move (to "not forget to put them on" - don't you love reverse logic?).

I have no idea what others experience but 99% of my shoots are without salt spray, wind-blown sand or nucleair material and solar storms - I shoot landscapes and architecture. If I want to shoot rough, I'll take my K-5 which is fully weather resistant. Even there, I'd hesitate to put a protection filter on - have seen what is left of lens sharpness once the filter gets coated with dirt and grime. Rather put the el-cheapo DA-L 18-55mm WR on - it gets better results than any other lens with a dirty filter on it and it costs about the same as a quality filter. Grime on the front element of the lens is less visible than on the filter in front of that element.

Let's be honest about this: the GR is all that and more, but it ain't no beach-going digicam!
 
Ho, ho, newmikey, you sound very gun-ho on subject of filters. Mind you, the makers of the finest lenses like Leitz and Zeiss put filter treads on their gems. According to your attitude that should be a pure nonsens, you now the stuff of degrading the quality of apo wonders and so on. You don`t shoot in rough environment but others do and they are justly worried about their gear. You shoot landscapes, fine, there`s a storm coming to England and perhaps to Holland. Thing about all those wonderful pict of elements raging at the coast. I doubt, that you would be happy having sand and salt blown inside that cute GR cavity where that cute GR lens slides to and fro. That`s why Ricoh offers a filter holder, that together with filter gives the best protection from theelements. Beside it, I personally smashed and scratched couple filters and boy do I was happy that it was not a front element. Just throwing an unprotected lens in my camera bag gives me creeps.You know, one can abuse big aperture lenses of normal to telephoto focal length and as long you shoot at full aperture the scratches won`t show. Try that on wide angles from 28 down and you`ll see the lovely black marks, especially if you stop down, believe me. Maybe someone would like to photograph a welder at work, these pictorial sparks flying in the dark. One look at the welders glasses tells you what these sparks do to the glass ( they melt it ). Of course, of course, when photographing a classy dinner in a classy restaurant, you probably can shoot with a naked glass, now harm done I hope. Still be prepared as the scouts say. I recall when photographing my baby son I got suddenly a jet of his pee straight in my camera. Well, it was analog Leica that could take it, the lens could take it and of course the proud father could take it too. Pissestolt as one says it in Danish. Cheers Stanislaw.
p.s. my son`s 24 years old and doesn`t pee at photorgraphers any more. :roll:
 
@ricadonna: the big key on the right side of your keyboard is the [ENTER] key - you could use it to structure your answer slightly which would make it so much easier to read and follow.

Also, you might want to read what I actually said which is to use filters when you need them, not when you don't. I actually have a pic posted on this forum which I took this morning with water spraying. The GR is none the worse for wear. I do have a bag full of ND, CPL filters but no clear/protection as I shoot mostly weather-resistant lenses on my K-5 for which the lenshood is ample protection.

I use filters when it makes sense or when they modify the light so as to make the image better. I never, ever drop lenses into a camera bag, as I understand you do. My lenses have front and rear caps and I use them diligently for the exact purpose of protecting my lenses while they are in my camerabag.

Ricoh offers a lens adapter (not a "filter holder" as you seem to believe it is called) to be able to mount a wide-angle converter as well as make creative use of filters possible. That would include a protection filter if and when required of course. If you'd leave that adapter on all the time, you're not getting to the nicest bit of the GR which is being able to slip it in a small pouch in your coat pocket.

Furthermore, dirt and dust get sucked in mostly alongside the outside of the lens tube segments when it retracts, sort of like an air pump sucking in air. The ACMAXX Multi-Coated LENS ARMOR UV FILTER that OP is asking about does not protect against that at all.
 
happyclickerbug":1zqnmgbu said:
Hi everyone, I'm a new Ricoh GR user. I bought mine just yesterday :) I haven't used it much yet, aside from a few shots in my study and around the house. Loving it so far, but, it being a fixed lens camera, I would really prefer if the lens had a bit more protection since I intend to "baby" this camera for quite a while.

I have been looking around and found the "ACMAXX Multi-Coated LENS ARMOR UV FILTER for Ricoh GR" on eBay. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this type of lens protector? How will it potentially affect image quality?

Hoping for your thoughts and advice. Thanks.

Cheers :)
Click to expand...

I would second Mikey's comments. However I have my reservations about what I call "the pit" in front of the lens itself when the camera is in operation. I have no problems in general use and note that the entire GRD series has had a similar (but not quite so large) "pit" in front of the lens and I have never covered mine, nor have I heard of anyone suffering camera damage from it. Excepting possibly the guy who kept his GRD in the same pocket as a bunch of keys and had a key go through the shut leaves of the camera lens cover. But that is another story.

My problem with the GR is that the lens is larger and that the pit is bigger. It wold be almost impossible to thoroughly clean inside this area without a disassembly and metriculous technical clean part by part. Recently this was brought into high relief by a trip to the local harbour where there were waves breaking over the seawall in a strong North-Easterly chop. Some great images but the air was full of sea spray. I did have the GXR there with a MF lens on board and front element and body covered by spray flecks. I did clean the GXR and lens thoroughly afterwards but this would have been impossible inside the lens front cavity with the GR. Needless to say I did not use the GR in these adverse circumstances.

My solution is to try and get a the adapter tube for the GR and fit it with a filter on front. I will not use it generally but only fit it when I think the lens is at risk. Therefore we get the best of both worlds - a useful adapter tube (might get the 21mm lens when I am at it), lens protection and easily removeable so as not to always filter the image (grin).

I must try again, I did enquire after one with a view to purchase but they were out of stock. The stock arrival date came and went, no contact. Probably sold out before they got to my enquiry on their list.

Tom
 
PS: I rarely use filters myself. And the lens surface I had at the harbour seems to have cleaned up nicely. Back in my film camera days all my lenses had filters on as it was the thing to do. But I always did the belt and braces and have the lenses capped as well.

As a collector of lenses I am surprised that many seem to take the attitude that with a filter on board there is no lens cap needed. As a result so many lenses are sold without lens caps but have recently cleaned filters.

As a result the nicks and the crud that might bang up on the lens cap now bang up on the filter. These days fitting high performance filters on to cheap MF lenses might easily end up with the filter costing as much as the lens. So I take the risk, remove the filter, add a cheap Chinese sourced $2 lens cap, so far so good.

On the question of the adapter tube - from previous use of one on the earlier GRD models it is easy to mount and dismount, it will take a filter for lens protection purposes. Also it covers the extending lens barrel in adverse situations.

Therefore when protection is needed it can be quickly mounted. Otherwise it can be simply left off and you have your portable GR. The only real disadvantage is a design problem. Ricoh should have made the end of the filter so that the removed dress ring could be re-attached. Principle - remove dress ring, attach adapter tube with filter installed. Refit dress ring on the front of the adapter tube. Presently there is too big a risk of losing the dress ring either accidentally or by putting it in a "safe place". By attaching it back on the camera is the safest place for it to be.

Tom
 
My other more contentious comment is on Accmaxx covers for the rear lcd screen.

The early GXR cameras and many GRDIII cameras had lcd screens with faulty anti-glare coatings supplied by Sony. The Sony NEX cameras of the same vintage had an identical problem.

The result was that after a while the coating itself degraded, crazed, and generally loooked ugly despite the lcd screen itself remaining pristine underneath. Ricoh through its distributor replaced the screens free of charge (I appreciated this). However I did lose some faith in this coating and have fitted and used Accmaxx lcd screens to protect the lcd surface on those cameras alone. Even my GRDIV which, on good authority, does not suffer from coating degradation. I had a spare Accmaxx left over and so I fitted it.

The design of the GXR and GRDIII followed the usual Ricoh practice of exposed lcd screen with no protective cover. My earlier models gave me no problems and the screens are intact and scratch free. Therefore I question the need to cover the lcd screens with a further protective coating - but if someone wishes to do so then it is a personal choice and I have no intention of speaking against that. I am more into saying it as how it is and questioning the absolute necessity of doing this. For example if the screens were so delicate then Ricoh would be swamped by demands for their replacement and soon make them more rugged.

When the screens were supplied by Sony with defective coatings then Ricoh replaced them with new ones where the coatings were adequate. In fact if it was the that the coatings degraded in time this might well have happened just the same even underneath a protective cover.

On the GR it is said that a protective cover is built in. It is hard to confirm this without disassembly as it must be under the lcd bezel surround. I have accepted this as "correct" and not fitted a further protective cover over the lcd on the GR, but if anyone chooses to do so this is fine by me. The point is that the built in lcd cover should be good enough to protect the lcd in all normal use and it would take serious accident to damage it. So far so good in my case.

Tom
 
Newmikey -enter
Yes I drop the lenses in me bag when in hurry and rather with filters then front caps ( they come off now and then ). Back caps are de rigeur.
If GR is not all around camera ( ballrooms and beaches ) so what is it?
All these my remarks come from not exactly babying my gear.
Generally I think the producers neglect the need for rough and tough in serious fixed lens compacts ( APS-C )
K-5 is wonderful camera but WR zooms are not optically the best stuff. You often need serious wide primes and zooms and where are WR-ed 15/4DA or for that sake 16-50/2.8 ?
Talking about protection of GR reminds me of GDR IV white edition that came with an optional lens cap,
that beside protecting that flinsy lens shield prone to be punched in scratching the lens, turned off power on function ( contacts in lens cap ) .
Now that`s an intelligent solution.
Finally a snapshot you perhaps have see already- http://youtu.be/J513Gnzkcks
As Momie used to say- protection is better then none
and for my part- just take it easy, it`s all for fun. Cheers
 
riccadonna":28nkbjgd said:
Newmikey -enter
- Yes I drop the lenses in me bag when in hurry and rather with filters then front caps
- All these my remarks come from not exactly babying my gear.
- K-5 is wonderful camera but WR zooms are not optically the best stuff.
Click to expand...
Sorry but I cannot make heads or tails of this, you buy expensive filters to "protect" your lens but then risk scratching those filters by dropping the lenses in your bag unprotected, without lens caps? If you do not "baby your gear", why would you be worried about some lenses not being "optically the best stuff"? You buy "optically the best stuff" only to put a scratched-up filter in front of them?

I buy the best filters I can afford, use them if there is an optical need for them and treat them as I treat my lenses: with caps or in boxes.
 
No, no newmikey. I`m not that rich. Do you know how much cost mc-coated Heliopan filter? I can´t afford to smash or to heavy scratch them every week. I use a messenger bag with soft dividers and I don`t carry a handful nails in them either. And to make peace, I do admit to use now and then lenses without filters. The old Canon RF 50/1.4 gives lot of reflections with filter when photographing dark scenes with strong pinpoint light sources. My VC 15/4.5 can`t take filters by design ( a tip, you can use 39 filter reversed and held on place with bit of tape ). No talking about the wide boys like Samyang 14/2.8 or the kins of Pentax 15/3.5. All in all, I simply feel more relaxed when street walking, camera dangling from my shoulder or glued to my hand, with filter on. One worry less.
 
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