How To Remove A Stuck Filter

[CommanderJameson]

Uh, OK.

[K12beano]

[K12beano]

Other good methods must include heating the lens barrel with a blow torch and dropping the whole lot off the Empire State Building!

[The Jolly Todger]

Seems like a decent technique to me, most dangerous part would be breaking the glass.

If it was my L lens I think I'd be sending it off to Canon but if you are caught short on location then I think it looks worth a go.

[Simpo Two]

Although if I had to go off and buy a hacksaw and a hammer, I may as well get one of those things that gets caps off jars.

[K12beano]

Talking of getting caps off jars, the sensible way that has worked for me anytime is the same as for loosening jar tops.

Get a rubber band (or elastic band if you're Yankie and affected by terms like "rubber") and wrap this round the rim, doubling up or tripling as necessary. Then when you apply pressure to the band it translates the force much more effectively around the filter (jar top) without adding extra pressure to the point where it is sticking on the lens body.

[MOTORVATOR]

Simpo Two said:

Although if I had to go off and buy a hacksaw and a hammer, I may as well get one of those things that gets caps off jars.

I actually have a proper camera filter wrench in my camera bag from years ago and thought maybe they had gone out of fashion but a quick search online shows there to be loads still available.

[corozin]

That has to be a joke. Nobody in thier right mind is going to gently tap an L-series lens with a hammer.

[binliner]

I've used a jar opener before, that rubber grippy stuff that you put in tool trays works as well

[MonkeyHanger]

AKA Canon's way of drumming up service work..

[williredale]

I dropped a Canon 17-55 with filter (and camera) attached on to it's front. After I got rid of the broken glass the filter ring had to be hacksawed off as it was no longer very round...

[nick francis]

I also managed to drop my camera which landed on the UV filter attached to the 24-105 lens. The filter glass was smashed , the ring was distorted but thankfully the lens glass was fine. I carefully extricated all the remaining fragments of broken glass from the filter but the ring was stuck fast. For months I simply used an additional UV filter which I managed to screw onto the distorted one beneath. This was okay but obviously some vignetting at wider angles and more so with a creative filter in front of that.
I tried the rubber band technique and everything else I could think of before resorting to violence.

I carefully masked the glass of the lens and made 2 vertical cuts in the metal ring to split it with a fine carborundum disk attached to my straight dental hand piece (aka drill). The filter ring then lifted out in 2 pieces. I was then able to force screw another filter onto the lens, this more less corrected the filter thread on the lens and now, a year or so later I can screw filters on and off with ease.