Lost my soft release & lens shade question

Just lost my $20 mini soft release on my Canon 7 -- it must loosened up and fell off. I think this may happen again as I am hesitant to overtighten it and may not remember to check it. The shutter is a bit low for my finger and the extra height really helps. Anyone have any experience/recommendations for the cheap knock offs ?

Also any experience with any replacement lens shade/hoods for a 50mm f1.8 Canon lens -- it's the odd 40mm thread size. I have a generic that I think is made for a Fuji digital camera which fits fine but is 58mm at the front end and blocks a big hunk of the viewfinder. I would love to find something narrower if that exists -- or do all the hoods block the finder significantly.

Thanks!

I had a similar experience loosing soft shutter, the next one I brought came with a small o ring that came with it that fitted over the thread so that when you screwed this in to the shutter this holds it in place and so far I have not lost one again.
As far as the lens hoods are concerned I always get mine from e bay and can get step up/down rings for the adjusted thread size. Yes some of them do block the viewfinder slightly but that will only slightly affect your viewing the image but will not come out on the photograph so that does not really bother me.

A tiny amount of BLUE Locktite keeps my soft releases in place.

eBay is full of cheap knock offs. If they ship from Chinna I tend to balk but when I buy the stuff always arrives quicker than expected and is surprisingly good quality.

BrianShaw said:

A tiny amount of BLUE Locktite keeps my soft releases in place.

eBay is full of cheap knock offs. If they ship from Chinna I tend to balk but when I buy the stuff always arrives quicker than expected and is surprisingly good quality.

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I'd been thinking about using Blue Loctite, after losing an RFF 10 year anniversary soft release somewhere in Paris. But I hesitate because I don't know (A) how easily the soft release can be removed if you want to take if off deliberately, or (B) if the Loctite then remains in the shutter release of the camera, making it look dirty/gummy. Any experience to share in these regards?

Clear nail polish works and is easy to break loose.
If you feel it's too hard to turn removing it some heat with a soldering iron will help.

The o ring sounds good -- has anyone tried adding an o ring to the mini soft release from Abrahamsson / Cameraquest? I don't mind paying another $20 as long as I don't lose the new one! The thought of gumming up the works with nail polish or teflon tape worries me -- especially as that's where the cable release fits.

It is called "Loctite® Threadlocker". It comes in different strengths. "Removable" is one of them.

jgoody said:

Also any experience with any replacement lens shade/hoods for a 50mm f1.8 Canon lens -- it's the odd 40mm thread size. I have a generic that I think is made for a Fuji digital camera which fits fine but is 58mm at the front end and blocks a big hunk of the viewfinder. I would love to find something narrower if that exists -- or do all the hoods block the finder significantly.

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My below comments are made with the black anodized version of the 50/1.8 in mind, I have no idea about the older full chrome version.

A lens hood has to have a certain length to be effective; and the longer the hood the wider it has to be at its end to avoid vignetting and the worse the finder blockage will be. The original Canon lens hood for the 50mm f1.8 measures about 58mm in diameter at the wide end. You do not give the length of the generic hood you use now, so I can only assume it is about the same length as the original hood (25 mm). Any lens hood with a smaller diameter at the long end would have to be shorter allover to avoid vignetting, which would make it less effective. As the original Canon hood is not so terribly long to begin with, I suspect that it doesn't make a lot of sense to use anything shorter and narrower.

As mentioned, Canon made a dedicated clamp on shade for this lens (fixed via a small screw and spring). You should be able to find it on Ebay with a bit of patience, but I fear it will be similar when it comes to finder blockage. One thing you could do is use the Leica clamp on hood 12585 (several versions exist, early metal, later plastic), which has cut outs to help with finder blockage; it will fit nicely on the 50/1.8, but I would not recommend to keep it attached to the lens permanently, as the Canon lens misses the groove into which the spring loaded fingers of the hood grab, so it will not sit as securely on the Canon as it would on a Leica lens.

If you cannot find the original Canon push on plastic cap, an older Leica push on metal cap for the 39mm filter size fits snugly on my 50/1.8.

The made for Fuji hood is the same 58mm diameter but it is indeed shorter -- if I allow for the UV filter which pushes it forward and allow for where the clamp would go -- I get to about 3/4", which is of course shy of the 1" (25mm) that you mention for the factory hood. I am assuming the 25mm is the overall length ? So perhaps this hood is made to allow a slightly wider lens to be used. But so far it seems to be working. Thanks for the info!

John Koehrer said:

Clear nail polish works and is easy to break loose.
If you feel it's too hard to turn removing it some heat with a soldering iron will help.

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I 2nd clear nail polish, my wife bought me my very own bottle I have lost a bunch of those but so far the nail polish has worked.

David