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UltravioletPhotography

Xume filter adapters


cmoody

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I thought I'd post this here as a new thread. I briefly mentioned these in a post some weeks back, and have since been using them for the last couple of weeks.

 

Basically these adapters consist of two fairly slim profile filter rings. One attaches to your lens, the other to your filter. They utilise magnets to allow for quite rapid filter swapping. The magnets aren't too strong or weak, as the filters are held in place by a recessed groove in the rings.

 

I'm using them with Baader filters, and had to use some stepper rings to get the right thread size for the 105mm UV lens I'm using.

 

I've been using them to take about 2500 photographs in human and UV spectrum this last week. The one drawback if you're working quickly is that its possible for the adapters to not completely connect together, which might affect image quality at a pixel peeping level. Otherwise, they've saved a heck of a lot of time, so might be worth a look. I do imagine at some point I might not get the filter swap right and then encounter the pleasant sound of breaking glass, but I think this is a long way off and will be due to an entirely avoidable careless mistake!

 

A link to the manufacturer http://www.xumeadapters.com/

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enricosavazzi

I have been thinking for a while about these magnetic filter holders. They do not really fit my way of working, because I normally do not swap just filters, but whole stacks of accessories that include step-down adapters, custom adapters and a lens shade in addition to filters (see http://savazzi.net/p...ng_filters.html ). I have several of these complete stacks containing filters and lens shades of different sizes, and it saves me time to swap them, compared to assembling a stack each time. I mount each stack by threading it onto the filter mount of the lens, which is not quick but relatively secure. I standardized on 52 mm filter mounts at the front of lenses (which requires some of the lenses to permanently carry step-up or step-down adapters), so I can swap accessory stacks among different lenses. Everything fits everything else, with the exception of some of the lens shades being too narrow for some of the lenses of short focal lengths.

 

One potential problem is that the magnets may be strong enough to hold a filter securely, but my stacks are much heavier. Since these magnetic holders are quite expensive and the result unpredictable in my case, I decided not to experiment with them for now.

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How much would you say your stacks weigh, and length? When I am next using the camera rig I could have a tentative fiddle and "guestimate" their max load bearing before they would become unsuitable?
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One potential problem is that the magnets may be strong enough to hold a filter securely, but my stacks are much heavier. Since these magnetic holders are quite expensive and the result unpredictable in my case, I decided not to experiment with them for now.

 

Boon Tang has posted a review of these and judging by some of the comments about magnetic strength I would expect they would hold your filter stacks.

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Hmm, I'm not so sure about his review:

 

I have seen videos of people holding their entire camera setup via the filter which is only attached to the lens by this magnetic filter. I too have tried it myself with my UV camera setup and it is strong enough to support it (and some more).

 

It depends on what his camera set up is I guess but it certainly wouldn't be strong enough to hold up the D7000 I'm using! Thinking about weights and forces, if I were to attach some weight to one and hold the other adapter, I guess I could imagine them holding together up to around 200g. I'm using the 52mm versions

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enricosavazzi
Yes, even in the worst cases they don't exceed 100 g by much. Length can be up to 5 cm and diameter up to 6 cm. A stack won't fall off by itself, but there might be a problem in the sense that leverage may be sufficient to detach the stack from a magnetic adapter if I happen to touch or hit something with the edge of the lens shade.
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  • 3 years later...

minor warning

 

if you are using the camera handheld, if you bump the camera, they can fall off

also the thread is not the best so the ring can start to become loose

I tried to fix that by using lock tight, but that is a really bad idea, as now I cant remove it :-/

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I am very satisfied with my Xume rings.

I have more than 15 and all of them sit very tightly on the lens.

 

I can imagine that a heavy lens shade screwed into a filter might be risky, but I seldom use the filters with a handheld camera.

 

My only problem is that when stacking filters the full stack is released when I try to switch the frontmost filter.

I normally have my S8612 first mounted on the lens and then add different other filters.

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