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What are the body's filters?

Stuck filters!! Help please, I have dug up some old filters and they are stuck together.....?

  • Ok i know slam me for being so stupid! I have collections of optical filters (all the ones except the ones that make the coffee) I only really use cokins now, but.......I have some screw on (hoya etc) filters that i stupidly screwed together a few years ago and now i need them - So i have seperated most of them but a few (the ones i need) are stuck together, so whats the easiest or best way to unstuck them? Does freezing work? or high temps? please help i dont want to have to charge my client for some new filters just for one job..... all answers apprieciated - except use photoshop for filtering

  • Answer:

    Antoni, What you need to do is take two of those rubber grip things like what you use to open a jar lid. Lay one of these flat down on a table, then lay the stuck filter stack down on top of it. Now, put the second gripper on top, still keeping the whole thing flat on the table. Then, press down and turn. Squeezing the filters between your fingers and trying to turn them distorts the shape of the ring slightly, making a stuck filter even more impossible to remove. By keeping them flat as I have described, you avoid this, and are usually able to budge them. If this doesn't work, most camera shops will sell you a filter wrench for a few bucks that makes this sort of thing easy. By the way, this is one of the downfalls of cheap aluminum filter rings. It doesn't happen with B+W Brass filters, but then most of us are too poor to use them.

Antoni at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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antoni, now you've got me worried. I haven't checked my screw-on filters in years! I think the only thing that might work is a temperature change. You somehow need to heat up the filter at the bottom of the stack GENTLY, perhaps with a hairdryer. And then cool down the filter above it. Maybe you could invert a air blast canister, as that should send out a pretty frigid stream out it's nozzle. I'd avoid any kind of lubricant because it might damage the coating(s) of the filters. One thought, set the two filters in a bowl of very cold (icy) water. Then aim a hairdryer only at the bottom one. OR, you could set the two filters in a bowl of very hot water and then aim the inverted air blaster. Perhaps you should try this on your least loved filters first. Hey, let me know if you find a good solution, because I may be in the same boat when next I check my own old filters. Then you'd need to grip them immediately with some rubber jar openers. >>> Maybe a pair of 'filter wrenches" might help? Here's a few more ideas. http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000IzU And a link for filter wrenches. http://www.amazon.com/Adorama-Filter-62mm-77mm-Filters-Package/dp/B00009R8I6 Good luck!

George Y

If you're talking about UV and/or polarising filters, why not try taking a few shots through sunglasses and see how they turn out?

Neil S

Man... fortunately I only have one filter so I don't have to worry about it stuck. But... yeah. It sounds that the filter wrenches is a good way to solve your problem. If it's still stuck... probably you're gonna need something more heavy duty like... er... pipe wrenches?

dodol

Gently, and I mean gently tap around the outside of the filters (where they are screwed together). Use the round (or square) rubber jar openers and see if they will come apart. Do not freeze them or heat them, that will do no good since they will contract or expand at the same rate. You might need to do the tapping routing a few times and if you can't get hold of any filter wrenches there are some light weight "strap wrenches" you might be able to carefully use. I keep wanting to put gently and carefully in all caps to emphasize how easily you can tweak your filters and ruin them. When you get them apart you might try this trick I was taught--just a small dab of petroleum jelly (the size of the head of a straight pin) on the threads before you screw them together will help them come apart later.

John T

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