How do you remove a stuck filter adapter?

[arith]

I went out early to take a sequence of images of a scene I had looked at the night before. A big advertisement was way too bright for the scene so I fitted a 3 stop Cokin hard grad filter on the end of my expensive UV filter using a Kood adapter.

When I got back to the hotel I couldn't remove it, it was well and truly stuck. Removing the UV filter from the lens I then resorted to panic methods of sticking it in hot water and using brute force. It came off but I'm guessing this isn't the recommended method.

How do you do it if at all, it wasn't cross threaded?

[Inkanyezi]

This is the way I remove a stuck filter. If it is very hard, I take one in each direction at the point where they are joined, in order not to overload the poor lens. The tool is an ordinary lamp cable, the flat type, that I lay around the filter and pinch together as a kind of handle. The trick is that the filter ring should not be deformed, or at least as little as possible, when you try to remove it. The same procedure has been used successfully with two filters that are stuck together, and it should work also with a ring that is attached to the plate of a square filter holder.

[Manfred M]

Filter wrenches. I always carry a pair in my camera bag.



Mine are made by Sensei.

You need two when trying to remove filters from an adaptor or another filter.

http://www.madebysensei.com/detail?sku=807009

[John 2]

Manfred's wrenches are available from Amazon in the UK in three different sizes Steve. Alternatively you might try the larger size of Cable ties as a variation on Urban's suggestion.

[DanK]

rubber bands are often enough to provide the needed grip. I have used wrenches similar to those posted by Manfred, but one of mine quickly broke.

[arith]

These are such good answers, I never heard of a wrench until now cheers Inkanyezi, Manfred, John and Dan. This is useful for the future, I don't even know if I have caused damage but have taken a few photo's since, including the Boat on the Clyde, which might be showing something, I don't know.

[Shadowman]

These are such good answers, I never heard of a wrench until now cheers Inkanyezi, Manfred, John and Dan. This is useful for the future, I don't even know if I have caused damage but have taken a few photo's since, including the Boat on the Clyde, which might be showing something, I don't know.

Sounds like good stocking stuffers for photographers.

[Stagecoach]

Two additional ones, if you have no strap and have been unsucessful;

a) When holding the filter with your fingers try to grip it evenly with four fingers (equispaced around the diameter) and not too tightly. The often used way is to place fingers diametrically, squeeze which distorts the ring and all is tight.

b) If two filters stuck together, pour some hot water in the sink to warm the underside of a plate. When the surface of the plate has warmed place the filter on it (male thread to the plate). As it warms the filter touching the plate will expand first, remove after a short time and use a) above.