Putting a filter thread on the Olympus 1.45x Teleconverter

This weekend, April 8th, 2001, I needed to take some special effect pictures with my assorted filters, using my Olympus C-2500L digital camera. The camera has a focal length range of 9.2 to 28mm, equivalent to a 36 to 110mm on a 35mm camera. In order to take the picture I wanted to take, I needed the Olympus 1.45x teleconverter to get the view that I wanted. Unfortunately, the Olympus 1.45x teleconverter has no filter thread.

Being a camera hacker, I wasn't going to let that stop me from getting the picture I wanted. I pulled out my filter step-up rings and tried to see if I could find one that fit snugly, maybe one that can screw thread in the plastic of the lens. After trying a few rings, I found the size of the teleconverter front to be 59mm. Filter rings do not come in that size, at least, none from B&H (read my "Where to buy cameras?" article if you don't know what B&H is).

Well . . . my first idea is a bust, so I figured I might as well super-glue a filter adapter ring to the front of the lens. It is permanent, but without a thread on the front, I wasn't going to do much with the lens anyway. I decided to mount a 58-77mm step-up ring on the teleconverter. I had several reasons why I wanted to mount such a large adapter ring:

Most of my filters are 77mm, because most of my Canon EOS lenses have 77mm filter threads. All my future filters are going to be 77mm or larger.
I do not want to vignette my pictures. The bigger the filter, compared to the lens, the more filters I can stack without vignette.

Mounting the adapter ring was pretty easy. I lined the edge of the lens front with super-glue, the gel type so that it would not run. Then I pressed the 58-77mm adapter ring onto the front of the lens.

The only problem I have is that the super-glue leaves a write residue. I will probably just color it with a black permanent marker. But if you know a good super-glue substitute that does not leave a residue, please let me know.

The lens cap that came with the Olympus 1.45x lens no longer fits over the lens. But I have a spare generic 77mm lens cap sitting around, so this seems the perfect application for it. With the filter thread, the 1.45x teleconverter is far more useful and practical.

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Putting a filter thread on the Olympus 1.45x Teleconverter

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