subject: Camera Accessories - Step UP DOWN RINGS - Uses & Drawback [print this page] Camera Accessories - Step UP DOWN RINGS - Uses & Drawback
Camera accessory plays an important role in photographer arsenals. Today we will discuss about a vital camera accessory i.e.; is step up or step down rings also known as Conversion Rings. Let me explain a little bit about step up & step down rings. When you buy a DSLR camera it usually allow to use compatible camera accessories by having an arrangement to screw in camera accessories in front of camera lens either by direct adoption or by using an adapter tube.
The arsenals of photographers just can not be satisfied by a standard Lens system, there are choices & requirement in terms of camera lens that adopts different size camera accessories using the same camera body.
Consider a situation, where you are having a camera lens system which Is compatible for 52mm camera accessories. You buy another lens system which is although compatible to your camera body but do not accept 52mm camera accessories since it is compatible for 62mm, a bigger size accessory.
Does it worth to buy the whole set of camera accessory compatible to New system? The answer is "Yes" as well as "No" - the reason behind these variable answers are - a smaller size camera accessory can create vignette if size difference is more then one step, for e.g.
58mm to 55mm step down ring may work fine in compare of 58mm to 49mm - A step down ring with four steps, since decreasing the ring size will increase the inner diameter & thickness which could interrupt .
The light transmission or vision of a camera lens. However, this is not the case with step up rings. If you look for popular sizes in camera accessory, these are 52mm, 58mm, 62mm & 72mm, now days 67mm are also in demand.
Now consider a situation where you are having a camera which adopt 49mm camera accessory, you can choose to buy bigger popular size accessories let us say 58mm, by using a step up ring 49mm to 58mm you can use the 58mm accessory to a 49mm camera lens.
Consider an addition of camera lens in your collection, let say you buy a tele - wide lens which is compatible with 55mm camera accessory. One can use a Step up Ring size 55mm to 58mm to make 58mm camera accessory compatible with new camera lens having filter thread 55mm.
Consider another addition of camera lens, this time with having filter thread size 62mm, in this case you can still use 58mm camera accessory by using a step down ring size 62mm to 58mm.
Thus, using step up ring or step down ring helps a photographer to save on vital accessories, save time, storage, maintenance, investment. Nowadays, it is good to have few conversion rings, the popular size are listed below
