[Leica] Capless in Gaza

[John Collier <jbcollier@shaw.ca>]

My dislike of the front lens caps that Leica provides has been recorded 
before; however, having bought yet another lens that I prefer to use 
without the hood, I thought it was finally time to do something about 
it. So I hied me to the local camera emporium for some experimental 
forays in cross capping.

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CAUTION!

If you are a Leica collector with a weak constitution you may want to 
hit delete now. There is not a hope in h*** that the Viewfinder is 
going to pick this email for publication. Don't say I didn't warn you!
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The Leica caps are are all too big in diameter and the resulting 
protrusion of the cap easily catches on whatever and engages the built 
in auto eject feature. After several months of falling off three or 
four times a day, the cap's grips get rounded and start falling off 
even more frequently! I wanted to find normal caps whose diameter is 
the same size as the front of the lens. To dispel the mounting 
suspense, I was completely and comically successful.

The first lens up to bat was the 35/1.4A with its E46 filter size. No 
problems here as it has been mentioned before that the Contax G series 
E46 caps fit properly. The black versions of the cap are not easy to 
come by so a brief session with some black paint gives you the perfect 
cap and now you have a truly compact and pocketable lens! One side of 
my mouth curled slightly!

The next to the plate was the E55 lens, a 24/2.8A – I actually used a 
21/2.8A as a model as my 24 is not here yet. The Olympus E55 cap was 
not bad but the perfect cap was a E55 Canon cap. It has very strong 
springs and neither love nor money nor direct nuclear strike is going 
to unintentionally shift that cap off. Bingo! Another lens rendered 
easily pocketable. The beginnings of a sly smile appear on my face.

The heavy hitter that now appeared was the big, but svelte (swelled?), 
Noctilux; clocking in with a take no prisoners E60 filter size. This is 
a Leica only standard and things were looking a little glum there for a 
while. The E62 caps from Nikon were too big and there did not seem to 
much else available. Some frantic rooting about in the cap drawer came 
up with a Nikon E58 cap with strong springs and good travel on the 
gips. It fits beautifully and gets bonus marks for saying Nikon in bold 
silver letters. I will admit to a silly grin.

Now the clean-up cap! A hood cap for my 12539 Noctilux hood. I 
frequently photograph at my son's playschool and a little distance from 
paint covered fingers is always a good idea. More rooting around in the 
cap drawer reveals that an E72 clip-on cap will fit quite nicely. 
Unfortunately it says Pentax which is not at all the effect I was 
looking for. Sigh... BUT WAIT! The sales chappie remembers that another 
company makes Pentax's lens caps. Oh joy! Can it be? YES!!! A Tamron 
E72 cap is a perfect fit. Tears of joy trickle down my face as I think 
of the reactions of certain parties to having a bold and beautiful 
silver Tamron on the front of Noctilux.

Your faithful reporter, no longer capless in Gaza,

John Collier

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