Why are these so expensive? Most of my lenses come with the original caps, but a few don't. They are available but often at high prices, $10 to $20 each. I guess it is supply and demand at work. The originals are always a great fit.
Why are these so expensive? Most of my lenses come with the original caps, but a few don't. They are available but often at high prices, $10 to $20 each. I guess it is supply and demand at work. The originals are always a great fit.
What I don't understand is spending big bucks for a top flight LF lens and getting caps which are so thinly constructed that these can, if the lens is not stored and transported very carefully, create rub marks on these optics surfaces. Has happened to me! Why put up with this?
That's what brand-name caps cost - it's not just Schneider. However, if you look at the lens cap listings at B&H, for every Schneider cap there's usually also a Kaiser cap in the same size and it's often cheaper, especially in the larger sizes.
Try looking for used ones on eBay. Used ones will save you a ton of money. Brand-name caps are nice to have, but honestly having the "Schneider" logo on the front of the cap enhances its usefulness 0%. I kept on searching for a collection of lens caps up for auction verses individually sized lens brand-name caps for months. Eventually came across a "motherlode" of 50+ lens caps up for auction. Image posted of the pile of caps was poor to say the least. In the end it worked out to cost me way less than a dollar per cap. To my surprise most of them were actually Schneider branded ones. Best ones of the lot were some leather felt lined caps which, in my opinion, beat plastic ones hands down.
Just because you have a Schneider lens doesn’t mean you need a Schneider lenscap. The Kaiser lenscaps Oren suggested will do fine. I also have one lens with a “cap” from a tennis ball tube and a couple with aspirin bottle caps.
Keith Pitman
The last time I bought a new Schneider lens cap from B&H the tooling had been moved to Japan IIRC. Same cap just moved out of Germany. I have a treasure chest full of lens caps, I've bought several used Schneider caps from KEH since they have a tendency to not include lens caps.
The last time I bought a new Schneider lens cap from B&H the tooling had been moved to Japan IIRC. Same cap just moved out of Germany. I have a treasure chest full of lens caps, I've bought several used Schneider caps from KEH since they have a tendency to not include lens caps.
When I sprung for a used but like new 210 Apo Sironar S lens last year, I tossed the standard-issue (ultra thin and flexible) lens cap, and pressed into service a 72mm screw-in "el cheapo" metal lens cap that I've had lying around, which works great with no tendency to bind up. Sure this cap takes an extra second or two to remove, but completely worth in in my book!
Several points. First, Kaiser lens caps (at least the ones I've handled) do not have small standoff nubs around the inside of their edges like Fujinon, Schneider, Rodenstock, Nikon, etc. do. Therefore, they make an air seal when attached to a lens, potentially forcing dust inside the elements.
Second, I don't know whether Schneider moved its lens cap production to Japan, but suspect China instead. This guess due to the most recent one I purchased being much smaller than its specified size, made of very hard plastic and therefore unusable on the lens it was bought for. Japan isn't known for poor manufacturing quality. China is.
Bah
Originally Posted by Sal Santamaura
Tin Can
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