How do you carry your filters? And, why?

[monkeytumble]

Love B&W photography, but need to find a better way to carry the filters. Please share how you carry your filters and why you like your method.

Cheers,

Jay

 

[Sirius Glass]

Wow I hit 100% on the first time!

The Heliopan filters come in cases that stack.

The Nikon filters are in a wallet because the cases do not stack and the cases are much larger than they need to be.

So really I should have voted one for each.

Can you change to poll to indicate a mix of methods?

Steve

P. S. Thanks I put both in.

 

[Monophoto]

I use cokin-style filters that I store in a CD wallet.

 

[brian steinberger]

I prefer to carry my filters depending on how much gear I'm packing. If I'm packing everything into a backpack, I'll put all of them into a wallet and into the backpack. If I'm packing light, I'll take along 2 or 3 that I think I might want and put them in the cases (B&W filters) that they came in and put them in the pack. This is very convenient. And if I'm just carrying a camera on my shoulder, I'll put 1 or 2 most important filters into those cases and put them in my pocket along with any necessary step up rings. I'm sure a lot of others will agree that you carry filters differently depending on situations. It also matters just how many filters you have. If you have alot, you rarely will need all of them for one given situation.

 

[pentaxuser]

Mine's an old Jessops wallet which is like a fabric folding wallet, held closed with velcro. Holds 6 round screw-on type in net pouches inside. 6 covers all my needs. It's about 6 inches long, two and a half across and maybe a third to half inch in depth. Like a wallet it can be easily carried in a trouser, jacket or anorak pocket.

My camera takes 58mm filters. If yours takes much bigger ones then the wallet I have might not be big enough.

pentaxuser

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I like filter wallets (Tamrac 8-pocket wallets for 86mm filters), so I can find them quickly and don't risk cross threading them by screwing and unscrewing them for storage, though for some less used filters, I might stack two or three in a single pocket.

Also, B+W filters don't print the filter type on the ring, but on the retaining ring inside the filter ring, so filter wallets make them easier to deal with.

Occasionally, if I want to travel compactly, I might just bring a few filters with stacking caps.

My 4" square filters I file in a small box. I don't know what it originally contained.

My 3" gel filters mostly I file in a Moleskine pocket file. It looks like a little book with six file pockets that someone might use, say, to file receipts or notes. This little book and a clip-on filter holder with barndoors makes a very compact package with my 8x10" kit.

 

[BWGirl]

I have two soft case/wallets... one for the Hassy filters & one for the 35mm filters. I really like them. They have made my shooting life a lot easier!

 

[DWThomas]

For the SQ-A I've been stacking the filters with a male & female cap on the ends; I picked the cap set up at B&H. I may eventually get some sort of wallet as I can see it might be more convenient, but the stack occupies minimum space and is solidly protective.

I don't use much but a polarizer or tungsten/daylight conversion on my other cameras, so the case they come in suffices -- so far.

DaveT

 

[David Henderson]

I carry screw-in filters in B+W plastic cases each of which is labelled. These fit into a single compartment in my camera bag.

Rectangular filters such as grads I carry in a purpose made case that holds up to about 18 filters, made by Formatt and sadly no longer available. In turn this slides into the front pocket of my Omni Trekker bag. Lee make a similar case but it wouldn't fit in the pocket and so isn't a candidate.

 

[Lee Shively]

Stack caps for most screw-in filters (52mm, 58mm, 77mm); a wallet for the 39mm filters because I couldn't find any stack caps that size; standard filter boxes for filters that are only for specific lenses and the OEM filter case for the Singh-Ray rectangular filters.

 

[Bob F.]

Circular in original plastic cases and rectangular in wallet.

 

[jordanstarr]

wallet. although it sucks for attracting dust and other particles, i can get 18 fitlers in 2 convenient pouches that can fit just about anywhere. did i mention scratch resistant?

 

[Steve Smith]

I have found myself carrying too much with me so I have recently been just taking out the camera (RB67) with left hand grip. Film in one pocket, lightmeter in another and the filter (only one, usually yellow) on the front of the lens.


Steve.

 

[coigach]

I keep all my Lee filters in a padded zipped wallet that seemed overpriced when I bought it, but has since proved worth it's weight in gold.

I mostly do landscape work on transparencies with my Pentax 67II set up and it keeps filters from getting scratched as I chop and change Grad ND's etc.

However, after a recent trip to the coast, I'm going to have to vacuum the wallet and camera bag as sand seems to have got everywhere, despite my best efforts...!:rolleyes:

On my Contax G2 setup which I use for people/street stuff I use B+W screw in filters, and if they're not on spare lenses, they're kept in the wee foam-lined plastic boxes they came with

Cheers,
Gavin

 

[Dan Henderson]

I use Lee gel filters in holders. I keep each filter in its holder in the original heavy paper envelope in which it came, and make every effort to slide them back in the paper sleeve for added protection. I keep the envelopes in a small pouch on the outside of my backpack where they are easy to access. This routine is a pain sometimes, but my filters are holding up much better than they used to.

 

[rogueish]

The colour filters each came in their own individual wallet and that how I keep them in my backpack. The macro lens (are these called filters?)(1,2,4,10x) came stacked but also in a wallet, and again, kept that way, in the backpack. Funny you should ask as I noticed yesterday that the green filter hasn't even been taken out of it's original wrapping. It's only been 3 years.
I also vote "other" because there is always a filter on the lens and is usually left on. Typically it's the orange, sometimes the red and is changed most often when I switch lens.

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

I keep them in their original protective cases and usually stuff what I need into a small lowepro accessory bag or similar. I like the idea of the hasselblad filter caps..

 

[waynecrider]

Wallet and waist bag with shutter release cable, micro-fiber cloth, and lens brush.

 

[25asa]

Stacking caps keeps the size all to itself, reduces dust and prints, and all in a tidy package.

The step-up and step down rings are in the side pouch.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

I have two Tamrac belt pouch filter packs with straps on them that allow the filters to ride over the side pouches on my Tamraq shoulder bag and are out of the bag and easy to get to but they're not going anywhere either. Handy and safe. As possible anyway.

 

[eclarke]

All my lenses are stepped to 72mm and I only carry 6 filters in a little Tamrac case which snaps/velcros onto my case or my belt as needed...EC

 

[narsuitus]

Since it depends on the type of filters and the number of filters, I voted “other.” The two rectangular filters that I have, I carry in their original hard plastic case. If I am carrying only one or two round glass filters, I carry them in their original hard plastic case. If I am carrying 4 to 8 glass filters, I carry them in a filter wallet. If I need more than 8 filters, I use gel filters which I carry in their original cardboard pack. I then place the packs in a hard plastic box for added damage protection.

 

[PatTrent]

Stacking caps keeps the size all to itself, reduces dust and prints, and all in a tidy package.

The step-up and step down rings are in the side pouch.

That's exactly what I do. Works for me very well.

 

[patrickjames]

I have gotten to the point where I think filters are a pain in the ###. I carry them in screwed together stacks, so I have one stack for each of 39mm, 40,5mm, 49mm, 52mm, 55mm, 58mm, 67mm, 77mm, 82mm, bay VI or whatever the hell the Rollei is, Cokin P in a wallet with all the above adapters, series 6, 7, 8, and a set of Lindahl as well. And all the stepping adapters to go in between.

Whenever I leave the house to photograph, I decide what cameras to take, then the filter search begins.....

Anyone else filter challenged like me?

Patrick

 

[Bandicoot]

I voted for both 'Case' and 'Wallet', as what I use is different for different setups.

My 'almost always goes with me' bag is a little LowePro waist pack with a Ricoh GR1v (usually with colour film) and a Ricoh GR21 (usually with B&W film). This also holds the lens hood for the GR21, a couple of spare rolls of film, a tiny Minox tripod and some filters - these little cameras take tiny 30.5mm filters. I take a Skylight, a Polariser, a Yellow, an Orange, and a Red. The Yellow is usually on the GR21 and the other four fit beautifully all together into one of the Heliopan 'drawer' type square filter boxes.

For other 35mm use I use both glass screw-in filters and Cokin P-size rectangular filters. The glass ones are the main B&W colours and plain and warming polarisers, and if travelling light and with only one or two different filter sizes to consider these are all I take: an appropriate selection in one or two LowePro filter wallets.

Screw-in filters for infra-red, colour conversion, and magenta (for some night scenes and for Velvia reciprocity) also travel the same way when needed.

The Cokin P-size filters (Cokin for the B&W colours, Singh-Ray for grad.s, and Chromatek for a set of CCs) are in small wallets that live, with the holder and the adapter rings, in a LowePro Utility Case. This can be carried, be attached to the outside of a back-pack, threaded onto my belt, or fit inside a case. This is what I take when shooting landscape on 35mm or 645 and trying to keep the weight/bulk down.

For MF beyond 645 and for LF, and most 'serious' work I use Lee filters and holders. To travel light, one zip-up wallet, a holder and bellows hood in a soft case and adapter rings in another soft case can all go into a back-pack.

More usually I take a small shoulder bag that contains (most of) my 'Lee system'. This works when travelling by car and working away from the studio, and also for teaching as it gives me just about all I need in one place.

This bag contains two zip-up wallets: one with ND grad.s, NDs, a square polariser, a light blue grad. and 81 & 82 series filters; and one with CCMs, and some pale straw and coral grad.s and stripes. In three separate soft wallets are: two glass rectangular filters - a .75ND hard grad. and a red 3 soft grad (for darkening skies on B&W); Yellow, Red, Orange and Green filters for B&W; and a 105mm screw-in circular polariser. Three holders and a bellows hood take up two more soft cases (the holders are set up for the different thicknesses of the filters, for the screw-in polariser, for wideangle lenses, and one is a 'doughnut' type; a screwdriver is in there too to change the configurations around). A final soft case holds adapter rings. An outside pocket holds two more soft wallets containing colour conversion and CC filters. This sounds like a lot, but I've refined the way it is all packed so everything works very neatly in this fairly small shoulder bag.

This set of solutions has taken me some time to arrive at and it works pretty well for me, but there still doesn't seem to be a quite perfect answer...


Peter