That tiny screw on the back of the lens

[Rider]

Do most people remove the tiny screw on the back of the lens, or drill a hole in the lens board?

[Ron Marshall]

I removed the screw on all of my lenses.

[BrianShaw]

I once left it in and drilled the lensboard. I'll never do that again -- too much effort for no benefit at all.

[Ernest Purdum]

You can also use a needle file to make a tiny slot extending out to the position of the screw. While taking it out may not cause a problem, it does eliminate the possibility of one more nuisance you don't need while getting ready to make a picture.

I'd particularly want to leave it working while mounting a lens to a miserable recessed lensboard.

[Walter Calahan]

I remove them.

[Ralph Barker]

FWIW, I remove them, too.

[Glenn Thoreson]

It's just a counter clockwise rotation prevention device, to put it in scientific (?) terms. It's to keep the thing from unscrewing itself from the lens board. In the days of magnetic shutter tripper/flash sync contraptions, it also positioned the shutter and held it in proper position. Totally unnecessary these days. Remove it and make life easy for yourself.

[Brian Vuillemenot]

I file a small slit coming out of the lensboard hole to accomodate the screw. This keeps the lens from rotating in the lensboard, especially important for large lenses where the aperture knob may be obstructed by the lensboard retaining flange on the camera if the lens rotates. Besides, removing the screw is tampering with the lens, which may adversly affect it's resale value.

[Leonard Evens]

I don't generally keep the screw in place, but there is one exception. I have a Toho FC-45X, and one of my (circular) lensboards is designed to allow for additional rise, fall, or shift by rotation of the lens on the lensboard. For this to work, the screw has to be in place, and the lensboard has a matching slot in which if fits.

I would recommend remvoing the screw but make sure you keep in in a safe place. You can never tell when you will need to put it back on the lens for some special purpose such as the one I mentioned above.

[Turner Reich]

It's like the mattress tag, you just can't go and take it off and throw it away. Actually I keep mine in but they are a nuisance to deal with. Take them off and they would be lost forever.