Step Up rings? some of you maybe asking.. if you know then you can just go to the section on what I thought of this set I bought.
If you don’t then stay with me here….
Right if you have done any kind of Photography you will have heard people say they are using filter/filters. Now these come in two types, screw on your lens type and slide into a holder attached to your lens type. For step up rings we are only talking about the screw on types of filter you might want to put on front of one of your lenses
Now filters come in different types and sizes, for example a UV filter will come in sizes to fit most standard lenses. e.g. 49mm, 67mm, and 77mm and even 84mm. Now this is great as most people put on a UV filter and it never comes off! they are cheap and easy to get from all sorts of manufacturers. But the more specialised ones like ND filters, well read on.
Lets say you want a Circular Polarising filter, to create some dramatic skies, or a Neutral density filter to create some smooth silky water effect or stretched clouds effects to create a sense of movement.
well you would need a fairly decent sized filter to cover your widest lens(landscape)
Most landscape photographers have an ultra wide lens, usually starting from 10mm and finishing anywhere between 18,20, 22, and 24mm. Distance and these lenses diameter is usually somewhere between 72mm and 84mm depending on which lens you have. so you have to buy a filter that will match this diameter of lens, right? Right, but what if you want to use it on a smaller lens you own, say your 18-55mm kit lens, well that is where a step up ring comes into play. So you don’t get any unsightly circular vignetting you can buy a step up ring which attaches to the front smaller diameter lens but the front fits your larger ND filter (77mm) .
Like this….
So now, I can use my ND filter, not just on my ultra wide angle lens, but on any of my lenses as I bought one for my Canon M 15-45mm kit lens which is tiny, my Canon 18-135mm stm which is 67mm, and my Canon 55-250mm stm zoom lens which is 58mm. These sizes are what is referred to as the Filter size.
So instead of having to shell out for each and every lens I own, so long as I buy a 77mm filter(any type, ie. UV, CPL, ND) I can fit the one to any of my lenses. This also means I can afford to buy a really good version of one instead of cheap versions of the many sizes.
So I bought a set of metal screw on, thin, step up rings. Quite a few of the cheap manufacturers will do whole sets of sizes either up or down, I decided that I didn’t need that many and just got the three I needed for the three lenses I have. These don’t cost more than anything from £1-3. So don’t need to pay out more. I got mine from Lazada here in Thailand, but I would have got them or even Amazon.co.uk
