field engineering lee filter holder

[mitomac]

Murphy's law. Not much went as planned yesterday.

Unseasonably hot and muggy in VT. Arrived at beautiful waterfall early evening all to myself. Set up camera, focus, calculate exposure, walk over to backpack for film - damn three kids are now in waterfall -- where did they come from?

Move location only to discover that the little spring retaining thing on the Lee filter holder has come loose. Spring is lost but find the two parts. Unfortunately, without the tension from the spring, the polarizer and filters spin freely and dangle precariously. damn.

Set up at another waterfall, again all to myself. Trying to focus a wide angle lens in very subdued light (8 sec exposure, iso 100, f22). Nothing comes into focus. After 10 minutes, I still can't seem to focus. Wife is growing impatient at this point. Look at loupe - the base as come off (lost) and I've been trying to focus about 1/2 inch behind the gg - damn.

Just that kind of day - did I mention it was hot and muggy? Anyway to make a long story short, the loupe base was a lost cause. However, I was able to field engineer a replacement spring for the lee foundation filter holder by raiding the local grocery store of their entire selection of click type ball point pens and mechanical pencils - one of these may have an appropriate sized spring. $25 dollars in writing supplies later, I finally found that the bic 0.5 mm mechanical pencil has a spring small enough to work in the filter holder. At least the day ended on a positive note!

Cheers,

mitomac

[Brian Ellis]

Sorry to hear about your difficult day, I've had a few like that myself. If your filters are the 4" square Lee filters you don't really need a filter holder, just grasp a filter by a corner and hold it next to the lens as you make the exposure. With a polarizer, get the setting right by eyeballing through the filter, then maintain the same orientation as you hold it up to the lens. The filters are large enough that your hand won't be in the picture with most lenses. I quit using my Lee filter holder years ago.

[timparkin]

Murphy's law. Not much went as planned yesterday.

Unseasonably hot and muggy in VT. Arrived at beautiful waterfall early evening all to myself. Set up camera, focus, calculate exposure, walk over to backpack for film - damn three kids are now in waterfall -- where did they come from?

Move location only to discover that the little spring retaining thing on the Lee filter holder has come loose. Spring is lost but find the two parts. Unfortunately, without the tension from the spring, the polarizer and filters spin freely and dangle precariously. damn.

Set up at another waterfall, again all to myself. Trying to focus a wide angle lens in very subdued light (8 sec exposure, iso 100, f22). Nothing comes into focus. After 10 minutes, I still can't seem to focus. Wife is growing impatient at this point. Look at loupe - the base as come off (lost) and I've been trying to focus about 1/2 inch behind the gg - damn.

Just that kind of day - did I mention it was hot and muggy? Anyway to make a long story short, the loupe base was a lost cause. However, I was able to field engineer a replacement spring for the lee foundation filter holder by raiding the local grocery store of their entire selection of click type ball point pens and mechanical pencils - one of these may have an appropriate sized spring. $25 dollars in writing supplies later, I finally found that the bic 0.5 mm mechanical pencil has a spring small enough to work in the filter holder. At least the day ended on a positive note!

Cheers,

mitomac

I've had days like that - just for the record, Lee are the sort of company that will just stick one in the post for you if you write to them.

Tim

[akfreak]

Locktite makes this wonderful adhesive putty called fun Tak. (http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/cntct_putty/overview/Loctite-Fun-Tak-Mounting-Putty.htm) It is a blue Butyl rubber. This stiff is right up there with duck tape. But it fits in your bag, pocket ect.. It removes with no residue, Everyone should have this. I use it for grip all the time. I have stuck pocket wizards to windows, to holding on a Rectangle Cokin ND Grad filter to the front of a standard filter ring, I left my holder at home. This stuff is amazing you must check it out!

[Jim Cole]

I always carry gaffers tape. Used it to tape a 8-stop ND filter to a shutterless brass petzval the other day to slow down the exposure to "hat" speed.

I've also had to tape graduated filters in place.

I do hate days like you had, though.