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Using a B+W 486 filter in a Milich WATE adapter


wlaidlaw

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My dealer has, without reference to me, substituted my order for a Leica #14687 e49 UV/IR cut filter with a B+W 49mm 486, I suspect because they did not have the Leica in stock. Very annoying since I was in London yesterday and visited Richard Caplan and R G Lewis, one or probably both of whom, would have had the Leica filter in stock.

 

Has anyone fitted the glass from the 486 into John Milich's WATE adapter? Two questions

 

1) Before I open the filter box, I have a feeling that B+W use a screwed retainer ring rather than the Leica type spring circlip to hold the glass in place on their filters. Is this correct and would I need one of the Microtools filter ring removers to get it out. I have been told that a 2 inch bath plug might work in place of the offical Microtools remover

 

2) If I get past this stage how well does the 486 filter work with the cyan corner removing software/firmware in the M8? Reading Sean Reid's review of the WATE the M8 firmware was not working very well with a 49mm Leica filter anyway, so this may be of little consequence.

 

I know that the three lenses I use with a B+W filter rather than a Leica one (Biogon 35mm, Nokton 35 and Tele-Elmarit 135mm) show more green saturation and I have a mildly tweaked profile in C1 to cope with this. However, if you have a mixed lens package of DNG's to convert, some with Leica filters and some with B+W, this is a pain and I would rather avoid it. Any help/advice would be appreciated.

 

Wilson

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Wilson, probably not much help as I don't use a WATE, but I do use a 486 filter on a Voigtlander 15mm - I've coded the lens as a WATE and select 16mm when the menu pops up. The firmware does a good job in removing the cyan corners.

 

When I was in Berlin earlier in the year I did try a WATE with filter, and on the shots I took I couldn't see any enidence of cyan in the cormers.

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Wilson, probably not much help as I don't use a WATE, but I do use a 486 filter on a Voigtlander 15mm - I've coded the lens as a WATE and select 16mm when the menu pops up. The firmware does a good job in removing the cyan corners.

 

When I was in Berlin earlier in the year I did try a WATE with filter, and on the shots I took I couldn't see any enidence of cyan in the cormers.

 

Thank Steve, that is interesting info anyway. I assume that when you were using a WATE, you had the 67mm Leica filter arrangement. Leica told Sean that the formulation of the 49mm and 67mm filters were different, which might account for the fact that the cyan corner removal on the 49mm filter in the JM adapter was not working perfectly. It might well be, as in a few other cases that the 49mm B+W filter actually works better than the Leica one in the WATE JM adapter. If this is the case, other than the extra difficulty of removing the screw in filter retaining ring, I might end up with a better result and £31 in my pocket (the B+W is £49 against the £80 of the Leica). I have been told that part of the difference between Leica and B+W filters is down to the fact that the Leica ones have the IR interferential filter on the camera side of the filter glass against the B+W filters that have it on the outside. This is the reason the B+W filters look so red from an angle. Maybe if you turned over a B+W filter glass in its ring, it would give near identical results to a Leica one.

 

Wilson

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The wide Leica filters are special, I believe, and the B+W filter may not give proper corrections with the B+W, meaning that you would need to use Cornerfix. I would return it and order the Leica from somewhere else, unless you are able to experimentally determine that there is no problem. I use the WATE with a Milich adapter and a Leica 49mm filter and have not noticed any problem. I will take a closer look though...

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I used the B+W filter in the adapter while waiting for the delivery of the Leica filter.

I finally had to order the microtool from the Germany office because nothing else would unscrew the retaining ring. I now have the Leica filter, but the difference has not been as much as I expected.

 

maurice

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I assume that when you were using a WATE, you had the 67mm Leica filter arrangement

 

Wilson, yes it was the Leica filter arrangement. One of the other participants in the Leica meeting had the WATE and I shot a few frames.

 

As an aside, I was very impressed with the WATE at 16mm. Made me wonder what a Leica prime 16mm might be like <grin>

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Wilson, yes it was the Leica filter arrangement. One of the other participants in the Leica meeting had the WATE and I shot a few frames.

 

As an aside, I was very impressed with the WATE at 16mm. Made me wonder what a Leica prime 16mm might be like <grin>

 

I decided earlier this week I was too old to wait for a 16mm prime. I might well have turned my toes up by the time it arrives! Hence a WATE sitting on the front of my M8, just waiting now (excuse unintended pun) for the arrival of JM's adapter and a proper Leica filter to put in it. As I thought, the dealer was out of 49mm Leica filters and had sent me "the next best thing". I just cannot be bothered to struggle to get the filter glass out of the B+W, when I know I can get the Leica one out in about 10 seconds.

 

Wilson

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As an aside, any comment on JM's delivery/service. I have ordered, and paid for an adapter but it is a week later now and I have no acknowledgement of receipt of order or answer to my question of expected delivery time frame for delivery etc.

 

My impresion is that he is not a good communicator. Is he a reliable provider?

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wlaidlaw:

your adapter shipped yesterday; it was originally designed before the Leica filters were made and to fit the B+W filter glass, and even the B+W retaining ring. the Microtool make it easier to change than the Leica spring ring extraction and is required anyway to screw the ring back in. the diameter of the rubber is 1.78"

 

erl: looking back over the last month, i have no record of any payments from you. I use paypal almost exclusively as it is easy to use and track and sends a receipt. I do respond to e-mails, but this is the first I have heard from you. I just noticed a shipment went to a J Amiet in Australia on 12/8, who placed it on 12/6; is that you? he had the same "showplace" domain name

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As an aside, any comment on JM's delivery/service. I have ordered, and paid for an adapter but it is a week later now and I have no acknowledgement of receipt of order or answer to my question of expected delivery time frame for delivery etc.

 

My impresion is that he is not a good communicator. Is he a reliable provider?

 

Erl,

 

My experiences with John over the last week or so, is that he has been an excellent communicator and my order has been sent in a very timely fashion. He has been very helpful on a special milling job on a bayonet I want done as well (pits milled on a Tele-Elmar so that they line up over the LED's with the lens over-rotated to bring up the 28/90 lines in place of the usual 24/35 lines). I am now just in the hands of the courier for delivery of my WATE adapter to the UK.

 

Wilson

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As an aside, any comment on JM's delivery/service. I have ordered, and paid for an adapter but it is a week later now and I have no acknowledgement of receipt of order or answer to my question of expected delivery time frame for delivery etc.

 

My impresion is that he is not a good communicator. Is he a reliable provider?

 

It's frustrating. Communication is non existent in my experience unless you mail him directly asking if he;s received the order/money, but the goods will appear. I've purchased a couple of things from him with the same level of communication. It's very frustrating to shell out say £100 and hear nothing until the package drops through the letter box.

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Sorry to barge the thread a little bit, but I just received my adaptor from John and it looks great. I need to order an IR filter as well. Is this the one I need?

 

Leica | E49 UVA/IR Glass Filter (Black) | 13412 | B&H Photo Video

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

 

Peter,

 

See JM's post above. It looks as if you can use either the B+W 486 filter or the Leica one as you have found on B&H's website. The only one which JM says does not work is the Heliopan one.

 

Wilson

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Sorry to barge the thread a little bit, but I just received my adaptor from John and it looks great. I need to order an IR filter as well. Is this the one I need?

 

Leica | E49 UVA/IR Glass Filter (Black) | 13412 | B&H Photo Video

 

Thanks,

 

Peter

 

Yes, this is the correct one. Leica has only one UV/IR filter in 49mm, and it comes in either black or silver.

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As an aside, any comment on JM's delivery/service. I have ordered, and paid for an adapter but it is a week later now and I have no acknowledgement of receipt of order or answer to my question of expected delivery time frame for delivery etc.

 

My impresion is that he is not a good communicator. Is he a reliable provider?

 

erl,

 

Last month, I met JM twice in NY. He's a very nice guy, good communicator and reliable provider. He coded for me 4 CV lenses (3 CV lenses I ordered at CameraQuest and delivered at his address and the 4th one I brought it from Paris) and I can tell you he was EXTREMELY busy at that time running his own bussiness.

 

Cheers

 

 

PS: And I have no problems with the 6-bit coding even with a screw in two of them (Nokton 35 and Skopar 25).

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Hi guys,

 

Jim's being very quick in his email communications with me.

 

My WATE adapter is on the way, unfortunately Microtools does not ship to my country. I have to lean on some kindly camera tech to remove the glass for me.

 

If I do get the microtools lens ring set, which side should I unscrew the glass. Front (female thread side) or rear (male thread side ~ nearest to lens).

 

Thanks in advance. And yeah, the WATE's really great lens, wide open sharp from corner to corner with good enough contrast for me.

 

Alex

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to clarify:

the wate adapter ships with a threaded retaining ring, fitting into female threads in the adapter, as does the B+W filter.

the Leica filter has a spring clip retainer instead of threads.

one you remove the glass from either filter, drop it into the adapter and fit the threaded retaining ring.

thr microtool makes fitting the threaded retaining rings much easier, but some have found a 1-3/4" rubber stopper to work as well

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