Lens caps? Bought or made?

[tmcsweeney]

I needed a lens cap for my Harrison lens. I was contemplating on making one because I had previously made one for my 16 1/2 Voigtländer. It was a Pain in the A$$ to say the least with gluing leather and felt. On my Harrison I decided to 3D print one out of a thermoplastic rubber. The lens hood on the Harrison is not perfectly round and the rubber conforms to all the waves and bumps The 3D print worked out awesome, but I’m wondering what everyone else is doing when they get a lens that has no lens cap?192588192589192588192589

[Greg]

Have had limited success with acquiring larger than needed slip on caps and shimming the inside with felt to make fit, the sides are just too short. Years ago for a large brass lens shimmed the inside of a large PVC end cap... worked out fine and was way more substantial than OEM LF plastic lens caps. And then once had a beautiful leather cap fabricated by a shoemaker. Cost me around $20 and was a work of art.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I am concerned by possible out-gassing of any home fabricated lens cover.
Perhaps I should reconsider.

[tmcsweeney]

I made one out of multiple layers of cardstock glue together and thin leather glued over the top. I let it sit for two weeks before putting it on lens due to glue fumes from contact cement.

[Bob Salomon]

I made one out of multiple layers of cardstock glue together and thin leather glued over the top. I let it sit for two weeks before putting it on lens due to glue fumes from contact cement.

Archival card stock? If not they could be acidic. Archival glue?

I once bought a name brand filter wallet because of its features and design. I bought it to store two complete sets of 67mm and Bay 60 Zeiss Softars, that would be 6 very expensive filters. After they had been in the case for a few months I noticed visible smudges on the Softars that would not clean off. Even by the Rollei service center. Nothing could remove the smudges!

I visited the manufacturer who just shrugged off that his product was destroying the very product they were made for claiming no responsibility for consequential damages. Should have taken him to court but since we were both in the photo industry it would not have been a wise move. I learned that after I won a suit against Berkey Photo Marketing while I had my studio and then went there for a job interview a few years later!

[Peter De Smidt]

Machine one out of high density polyethylene or similar.

[B.S.Kumar]

Delrin / Acetal / POM will not outgas. I wanted to get them made, but no takers, sadly.
https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?132043-Acetal-Lens-Caps

Kumar

[Whir-Click]

SK Grimes makes custom, perfect-fit lenscaps. If you want a lasting solution for a lens you value, open your wallet and let SK Grimes delight you.

[angusparker]

SK Grimes makes custom, perfect-fit lenscaps. If you want a lasting solution for a lens you value, open your wallet and let SK Grimes delight you.

+1

[Duolab123]

I needed a lens cap for my Harrison lens. I was contemplating on making one because I had previously made one for my 16 1/2 Voigtländer. It was a Pain in the A$$ to say the least with gluing leather and felt. On my Harrison I decided to 3D print one out of a thermoplastic rubber. The lens hood on the Harrison is not perfectly round and the rubber conforms to all the waves and bumps The 3D print worked out awesome, but I’m wondering what everyone else is doing when they get a lens that has no lens cap?192588192589192588192589

That's pretty neat

[Tin Can]

True


Delrin / Acetal / POM will not outgas. I wanted to get them made, but no takers, sadly.
https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?132043-Acetal-Lens-Caps

Kumar

[tmcsweeney]

I think the rubber cap I made conforms and fits a little too well. Sliding it on and off causes a little bit of suction and is causing the radial drive on the lens to move..... back to the drawing boards.

[jnantz]

+1
+2 absolutely beautiful stuff made upstream in Wooon -SOCK-ette

[MartinP]

I think the rubber cap I made conforms and fits a little too well. Sliding it on and off causes a little bit of suction and is causing the radial drive on the lens to move..... back to the drawing boards.

As `the whole thing is plastic/rubber, can you drill a small hole then fix a flap to the inside of the cap covering the hole in a springy manner. Pushing the cap on will keep it sealed, while pulling the cap off will allow the flexible flap to 'fart' some air in to the cap, therebye reducing the negative pressure.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Google 'elastic bowl covers' or visit a big-box store or a local grocery and be happy.
Why make simple so difficult?

[Bob Salomon]

Google 'elastic bowl covers' or visit a big-box store or a local grocery and be happy.
Why make simple so difficult?
Because they might outgas and then it would be an expensive choice.

[Cameron Cornell]

Reach out to Anton Orlov. He has a fellow in the Ukraine who makes beautiful, custom caps for a reasonable price. I have them for the front and back of each of my best lenses.

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[tmcsweeney]

I actually wound up drilling a hole at a right angle in the round knob and then one down the center into the hand. It turns out that the 3D print utilizes a honeycomb paternities inside the larger portions top save weight and material. That is acting like a natural light baffle and I don't have any suction issues. Pretty cool. I definitely think the leather one I made for my voigtalnder looks better, but this 3D printed rubber lens cap works just as well without the headache of stretching leather, laminating cardboard, etc..

[Jac@stafford.net]

Because they might outgas and then it would be an expensive choice.

"Might"? Bullshit. Food-grade materials do not out-gas and if they did, then due diligence to occasionally swap out a 25-cent item is simple. Peddle panic elsewhere.

[Bob Salomon]

"Might"? Bullshit. Food-grade materials do not out-gas and if they did, then due diligence to occasionally swap out a 25-cent item is simple. Peddle panic elsewhere.

What are they made of?

Why take the chance? Lens caps aren’t all that expensive unless you have them custom made.

[Jac@stafford.net]

What are they made of?

Why take the chance? Lens caps aren’t all that expensive unless you have them custom made.

I had in mind large, unobtanium outlier caps.

[andrewch59]

I have a hunter penrose lens, made by wray, that came with half a tin can lined with felt as a cap.
My big brass lenses I make my own out of cardboard and leather with felt inner lining.

[dkonigs]

When I got my first used LF lens that didn't come with one of the caps, I just went ahead and made a somewhat-parametric model in Fusion 360 and 3D printed one out of TPU. So far its worked fine. I recently got some enlarger lenses that were also missing caps (apparently some new enlarger lenses come in screw-thread cases and don't even ship with rear caps!). So I just adjusted the model, and printed more in the correct size.

My design has some "ribbing" around the inside diameter, like regular caps, so that the seal isn't airtight. Between that and the flexible TPU material, they go on/off pretty easily while still being snug.

[tmcsweeney]

The next design I make will definitely have ribbing. I am just getting started with fusion 360. It’s almost too much for a new user. The fact that for 20$ I can have custom caps for each lens is perfect. If down the road I wanna spend some extra for something more stylish I can

[dkonigs]

The next design I make will definitely have ribbing. I am just getting started with fusion 360. It’s almost too much for a new user. The fact that for 20$ I can have custom caps for each lens is perfect. If down the road I wanna spend some extra for something more stylish I can

For me, already having the tools and materials, it wasn't much of a leap. I actually learned how to use Fusion 360 to design something far more complicated than a lens cap (after getting fed up with the "jankiness" of using FreeCAD). Thankfully I found some decent tutorial videos online that helped get me started.

Here's a link to my model, in case you want to download it and use it as a starting point:
https://a360.co/2KyOvzu

[Peter De Smidt]

Notice the last step at: https://skgrimes.com/products/lens-caps

[alex from holland]

Just do it your self

http://collodion-art.blogspot.com/2010/08/making-your-own-lenscap-isnt-that.html

[Peter De Smidt]

Nice work, Alex!

[jim10219]

I've always just taken a spare plastic lens cap that was close in size, and heated it up and reformed it to fit. If you need to shrink it more than what that will allow, just make some plastic slurry, which is made from spare pieces of the same type of plastic dissolved in some kind of solvent like acetone, and paint it onto the inside lip of the lens cap. Once the acetone dries, you can either heat form it to the lens, or sand it down to fit. They usually don't look pretty, but they work and don't cost me a dime to make.

[SParis]

Don't know what size you're looking for, but the first place I look is B&H Photo. They have a pretty extensive stock of OEM and generic caps. I didn't do a careful search, but just looking quickly I found 82mm and 85mm ones. The most expensive ones are about $20, which is a lot less than having someone make a cap, and a lot more time efficient than building one. (If you can find one in the right size)
I have a couple of older lenses (an Artar and a Dogmar) that sport Canon and Nikon caps. They make my OCD hurt a little, but they work and they were cheap.
My favorites are the Kaiser brand caps. They're soft plastic push-ons with no printing, but be aware that they're sized by the outside diameter of the lens and not the screw-in thread size.