Some while back I invested in, and invested is definitely the right term as they’re not cheap, in some XUME adapters for my round, screw-on filters. I’ve gotten so used to simply and quickly changing filters without all the screwing/unscrewing and risk of a cross threading etc.. The XUME system uses a magnetic adapter ring that screws into the front of the lens, while the filter itself screws into a metal filter holder.
Recently I decided to buy a Cokin P-Series filter set containing filter holder, four of their adapter rings (49 mm, 52 mm, 55 mm and 62 mm) and three ND filters. Great on their own but here’s the problem I encountered and my solution.
First the problem, as I wanted to quickly change between using a screw on circular B+W clear glass protection filter plus the proprietary lens hood and the Cokin system this is what I was having to do as it was impossible to easily swap because the outer diameter of the Cokin ring prevented the hood simply being reversed and fitted/re-fitted without screwing in/unscrewing the Cokin adapter ring every time.
So to fit the Cokin holder I’d first have to reverse or remove the lens hood then remove the circular filter complete with both halves of the XUME system and then screw in the Cokin ring and snap on the Cokin filter holder and the same in reverse when changing back the other way. Slow and fiddly and always the chance of a mishap along the way especially on a cold winter’s morning with cold hands!.
My solution is very simple, I fitted one of my XUME filter adapters to the Cokin ring. So to change over simply reverse or remove the lens hood, pull off the circular filter with XUME filter adapter attached and attach the Cokin holder complete with its adapter ring and XUME lens adapter fitted. there’s no weight in the Cokin system so practically no chance it’ll become easily detached providing one exercises due care and attention .
Reverse hood, pull off circular filter, push on Cokin filter holder and vice-versa, very quick!, tested with my Olympus 12-40 PRO lens (62 mm filter thread) @ 12 mm with no vignetting. 🙂
62 mm XUME lens adapter fitted directly to lens.
2 x 62 mm XUME filter adapters, one fitted to circular filter and one fitted to Cokin 62 mm adapter ring.
Lately I’ve been experimenting with focus bracketing and combining with HDR. For quite a while now I’ve been using Skylum Software’s Aurora HDR 2019 with very good results. I set off recently to one of my favourite locations, Bushy Park, to deliberately shoot focus bracketed shots as well as HDR of the same scene.
I typically shot 3-4 focus bracketed shots and another three frame HDR at +/- 2EV. I processed the HDR in Aurora to my tastes as usual and used Affinity Photo’s focus merge feature to merge the focus bracket shots as well as the HDR from Aurora. I then edited further in some of my other software including Skylum’s Luminar 4. Here’s few results from my experiments. Tack sharp front to back and HDR.
I know that this will surprise regular visitors to my blog who know how much I hate them but I actually took a tripod, specifically for these experiments. Unfortunately it was, as usual too heavy and cumbersome and I returned home, on foot as usual, with quite severe aches and pains in my back and shoulders after carrying it around for about five or six hours so I’m not taking it again but I might have found an interesting alternative, the MeFoto Backpacker Air tripod which weighs only 2 lbs and is ideal for my Micro Four Thirds gear. Quick to setup and at only 10.4 inches in length when collapsed it should also fit neatly in my Vanguard VEO GO34M camera bag.
I bought one of these ingenious Hero Clips so that I could easily hang my camera bag or another weight from the tripod’s weight hook for extra stability. I guess that you could hang just about anything from it. Note it is not safe for rock climbing etc..
