Hi everyone,

Firstly let me start by saying that I’m a firm believer in using lens hoods, something that I’ve been doing for many many years and all my lenses have hoods. Panasonic, unlike most of their other lenses, doesn’t supply a hood with the lens as they don’t reckon that it needs one. My instinct was to fit one of my metal screw in after market hoods which has been fine. I was keen to test the lens without a hood, it’s not easily knocked as it’s a pancake design and, equally importantly, it is not prone to flare even in strong light.

This got me thinking about adding a 46-62mm step up ring to the lens which in turn has one on my 62mm (magnetic) XUME lens adapters attached. This still gives a little shading and protection to the front lens element and still makes the lens considerably shorter and thus takes up less room fitted to the camera when in my small camera bag. A nice side effect of this is that my silicone lens cap now fits right down flush to the camera body and completely encases the lens mount. I’m not claiming that this water proofs the lens in transit but it doesn’t do any harm. An unexpected benefit to doing things this way is that my somewhat voluminous but effective rain cover, which has an elasticated front end stays on much better and can’t easily slip off the front of the lens as the step up ring arrangement prevents this unlike having the smooth metallic lens hood fitted.

Now onto my filters, my preferred (slim) CPL filter has a 58mm thread so I first fitted one of my 62mm XUME filter adapters and then a 62-58mm step down ring and then the filter. Because the step down ring makes the filter somewhat recessed and fiddly to adjust I then fitted a 58-62mm step up ring which makes the filter easy to adjust and also provides a little shading to the filter. I’ve tested and with this arrangement fitted it doesn’t cause any vignetting as it’s still considerably shorter than using the hood. I’m also packing a 62mm clear filter and XUME filter adapter to quickly snap on the lens to protect the front element should I need it in harsh environments, rain, snow (with my rain cover fitted), dust etc.. Easier, quicker and safer to clean the filter than the front lens element when required.

Kind regards,

Leigh