Step up or Down rings?

[B1grich]

Ok, this may be a silly question, but anyways.. I have a two lenses ATM that have different lens filter threads ..one a 62mm and the other one a 67mm.. what I want to know is instead of buying two different sets of filters for my lenses, which is better to do? use a step up ring or use a step down ring? or does it really matter? if you get what i mean..........

[I @ M]

Ok, this may be a silly question

The only "silly" questions are the ones that you don't ask.


or does it really matter?

To a large degree, yes, the lens with the 67mm thread has a larger front element (most likely) for a good reason and that is to let in slightly more light relatively than the lens with the 62mm thread. If you buy a 62mm filter and a step down ring to fit the filter to the lens with the 67mm front end you will block some of that light entering the lens. That is NOT the desired option in most situations to obtain good images. In extreme cases of stepping down filter rings you will start to see parts of the filter and rings in the final image.

For ease of use and image quality you will be fine using a step up ring on your 62mm threaded lens and a 67mm filter. That will work fine --- until you start buying lenses with 77, 82 or even 105mm filter threads. :D

There are also reasons why you don't take extreme steps the other way as well and don't fit an 82mm filter to a lens with a 52mm thread size via step step up rings because the added depth that the rings entail may mean once again that the filter edges or the rings themselves intrude into the image area with wider angle lenses. The ideal solution is to own filters of the correct diameter for each lens but if you only intend to step up a small amount a single ring will work ok.

[arthurking83]

But be aware too tho, that using a step up ring won't allow you to use the lens's hood with the filter attached.
Lens hoods can be quite important in many situations.

[Bennymiata]

One more thing.
Step up rings or step down rings can be very difficult to take off the lens when you need to, so don't do them up very tight.

[B1grich]

Cheers Guys, thank you for your input.. Might get a step up ring for now to play around with the filters, then get dedicated filters to suit when i get more lenses :cool:

[Anne Sh]

Can I just clarify this if I have 82mm and 77mm lens and want to only buy one set of filters I would be better to buy 82mm filter and a step up ring to allow the 77mm lens to accommodate the 82mm filter. This way I will reduce the chance of vignetting rather than buying the 77mm filters and using them on the 82mm lens? Have I got the stepping up and down correct?

[ameerat42]

Can I just clarify...I would be better to buy 82mm and step down to 77mm. This way I will reduce the chance of vignetting? Have I got the stepping up and down correct?...

Yes.

[arthurking83]

Yes.

If I'm correct in assuming that the 82mm lens is the Canon 16-35 then as Am posted .. yes!

There are some instances where you can easily get away with using step down rings instead, and you can see this in the lens design.

I can't think of a specific instance in Canon terms where this would work, but I'd assume that the 17-40/4 may be of a type where step down rings could work without problem(ie. vignetting)
(maybe someone could confirm .. but it's not important)

The lens design type where step down rings can work well are of the style where the front lens element is not as large as the actual diameter of the filter threads.
So looking through the front of the lens, if the front element is (say) 50mm diameter but the threads are say 67, 72 or 77mm diameter, the a step down ring could work ok.
Obviously the larger the difference between threads and front element, the more you could step down the adapter.

If you're looking for an adapter on the net, then the type you'd be searching for would be a 77->82 mm adapter (77mm male to 82mm female threads)