Push-on Lens Caps

[Prospero]

Hello. All my LF lenses have push-on lens caps. And most of them are loose and fall off. Does anyone have any brilliant methods for tightening them up?

 

[kb244]

Hello. All my LF lenses have push-on lens caps. And most of them are loose and fall off. Does anyone have any brilliant methods for tightening them up?

Cut a strip of felt and glue it around the inside of the cap?

 

[Dorothy Blum Cooper]

While you already have a lens cap, I'm not sure you'd want to do this to the interior, but I'll post it any way in case you'd like to give it a try.

I've been sewing for more years than I'd like to count, and my experience has been that felt tends to crush and flatten over time when put to 'utilitarian' use. My husband and I have a vintage lens that we wanted to protect and decided to make our own lens cap cover with a protective interior and hard cover using PVC, corduroy and interlining.

Rather than using felt, we opted to line the interior first with interlining. This can be purchased at most fabric stores that sell upholstery and drapery fabrics. Interlining is what's normally used in the mid section of drapes. Similar to batting, but much nicer and dense. It's a nice, soft fabric that will have some 'give' and have a cushion feel once in place.

After he cut and glued the interlining, my husband then measured and cut the necessary strips from thick black beaded corduroy. He then glued the corduroy on top of the interlining. The ribbing works well to snug the fit and slide.

I've attached two images that show the black PVC Plumbing Cap that my husband purchased at a local hardware store. We brought the lens with us to make sure it was a close fit, then set out to line it with the appropriate thickness to fit snuggly onto the lens. It's perfect and works beautifully for us!!! I've adjusted the contrast/brightness in the photos so that you could see the detail on the fabric that I was referring to.

Outside of Lens Cap Cover:

Interior of Lens Cap Cover:

**Edited to say that the PVC cap itself is quite thick and durable...definitely not a flimsy piece of plastic!

 

[Pinholemaster]

New plastic caps are pretty cheap, so instead of spending the time and money to tighting up the caps that come loose, I simply get a new one.

Or you can get the ultimate cap by paying the big bucks to SK Grimes for one of their fabulous lens caps. I've never done that.

 

[reellis67]

I use spare felt from a light seal kit to line the inner rim of the cap, which gives it some give and keep the cap on tight.

- Randy

 

[Dorothy Blum Cooper]

I use spare felt from a light seal kit to line the inner rim of the cap, which gives it some give and keep the cap on tight.

Actually, the corduroy (pictured above) cuts really nicely into light strips for our 8x10. Fabric with a dual use.

 

[dphphoto]

Try using snap on caps, like the ones that come on your 35mm and medium format lenses. They're cheap on eBay, and will fit the rear elements of your lenses even if they aren't threaded. Dean

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

For loose plastic caps, if it doesn't seem justified to replace them or if they're an odd size that would be hard to replace, I just put a little piece or two or three of gaffer's tape inside the rim cap, and that usually takes care of it.

You can buy new Schneider or Kaiser slip-on caps from B&H and other places.

 

[raucousimages]

Second the Gaffers tape.

 

[ragc]

Second the Gaffers tape.

Third the gaffers tape. The stuff has many excellent uses!