Where do all the lens caps go? Making your own.

[Eric Woodbury]

I just bought a lens from KEH. I love the lens, but KEH didn't get the caps when they got it and therefore, I didn't get any caps. Somewhere in this world there must be a drawer full of lens caps and I'm wondering where it is. This is not the first lens I've purchased without getting caps. Who's got them?

The lens is a bit of an odd size in the back and I can't find a replacement yet. Do you have a tricky way to make your own caps? I'd like to see what others have done for making their own replacement caps.

[Keith Pitman]

There's a Nikkor cap that fell out of my pocket near a windmill on the eastern plains of Colorado. Can't remember exactly where, but I remember losing it.

I made one lens cap from the cap on an aspirn bottle. I whittled it down a little with a utility knife. It was still on it when I sold it.

You can find a lot of slip on caps in various sizes at B&H. I think Kaiser is the brand.

I have most of my lenses stepped to 67mm to standardize filters and use snap caps on them. Get better quality snap caps if you go this route (Nikkor is a good brand); the cheap ones don't stay on.

[IanG]

There's a cheap lens cap off my Tessar somewhere between the stonework of the seats in an ancient Greco-Roman amphitheatre

Some archaeologist might find it in s few centuries.

Ian

[AJ Edmondson]

I think they are like the socks that disappear in the dryer... Steve Grimes made really nice ones (Delrin I think) and they were not terribly expensive. I think the folks who took over from him still make them. Google SK Grimes.

[AJ Edmondson]

I was wrong... they are plastic but are nice nonetheless. Prices are up from when I bought mine (start at $25).

[IanMazursky]

AJ's right, they are like socks. I finally got fed up with losing them in my bags or on the ground that i bought a bunch of those cap keepers.
I know its not "Professional looking" but i have not lost a cap since.
The front and rear caps have a little string that attached to a loop of elastic and that goes around the front element of the lens.
When i put the lens board in the camera, they dangle out of the way. Its magic, no more lost caps!

[David Karp]

I think they are in an alternate universe populated by lens caps and cable releases.

[Jim Graves]

... and in that alternate universe there is an ongoing thread wondering where all the lenses and cameras have gone. A quick inventory of my shelves would answer that question for them ... and I think there are more than a few on this Forum who are contributing to their missing items list.

[AJ Edmondson]

Amen Brother Jim... I recently did an "inventory" and am amazed at the quantity of LF "stuff" I have accumulated over the last forty-five years! Truth is, I had much more fun back during those years when I had one 4x5, five film holders, one lens and - more often than not - was shooting outdated film from the base property disposal yard! "I'm still ignorant so what happened to all that bliss?"

[EdWorkman]

There is a tiny atoll in the south pacific where lens caps form the basis of the local monetary system- seashells remain in use for change.