Use Hoya 52mm glass in Leica Series VII filter

The old Leica series vii drop in coloured filters I have were shedding their coating like a powder. The orange one cleaned up perfectly with Silvo then lens cleaner which probably just stripped off all the coating. But the yellow was not a great success. So I looked at a yellow 52mm Hoya and wondered if the glass from that would fit into the series vii holder. The series vii has a screw in retainer that unscrews with a lens tool and some grunt. The Hoya glass pops out once the retaining clip is sprung out. Then the Hoya glass drops right into the series vii holder. It's a bit thicker but the screw in retainer still screws down to flush with the holder edge. Hoya filters on eBay are a lot cheaper than good series vii filters and easier to obtain. Had a look at the series Vi filters and I wouldn't be surprised if the same trick can be done with them.

Nice job.
I have a Leica polarizing filter which is delaminated and could use the same fix.
Will look into that.

Replacing the glass is a good trick, Thankyou-

I remembered having a Series VII to 52mm step-down ring from (MANY) years ago, and probably in the bottom of a box somewhere in the closet.

Found one on Ebay, "Just for reference"-
https://www.ebay.com/itm/194663-Unb...138936?hash=item3fbc0142f8:g:kWYAAOSwyABceDTc

I also have a degraded polarizing filter for E39 lenses on M cameras. Definitely going to look into this. Never had any trouble with other Leitz filters though.

See what Tim at filterfind.net might have. He really knows his stuff.

If anyone is interested in doing the same thing, but for a Series VI filter, I wrote up what worked for me in this post. The need in my case was for an infrared filter - pretty much impossible to find in series filters - so I ended up doing the same path of transplanting glass from a modern filter into a series-VI retainer.

__Brian said:

Replacing the glass is a good trick, Thankyou-

I remembered having a Series VII to 52mm step-down ring from (MANY) years ago, and probably in the bottom of a box somewhere in the closet.

Found one on Ebay, "Just for reference"-
https://www.ebay.com/itm/194663-Unb...138936?hash=item3fbc0142f8:g:kWYAAOSwyABceDTc

Click to expand...

If you can't find an adapter it is easy enough to epoxy a step up ring to the front of a series filter retaining ring. It still works for series filters and modern screw on filters. I've done this for V, VI and VII. I don't have access to them at the moment, but if anyone is interested I can get the step up ring sizes when I get home.

Fixing the 39mm polarizing swing out Leica filter requires a 43mm polarizer as a donor as I recall. Fixed mine several years ago.