I bought this mostly to deal with two enlarger lenses with bent filter threads. I use them reversed on a bellows for macro and product photography, and one was hard to use, the other impossible. In under two minutes each they threaded on slicker than snot off a doorknob (yes, "The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper" is stuck in my head from like 40 years ago).
I used it on the rest of the enlarger lens flock, and now all 8 of them thread on like they were new. Used it on several older "regular" photographic lenses, too, and again, everything is smooth and easy now.
Watch a YouTube video before using it. You want to snug it up, expand a bit without torquing the heck out of it, loosen it a little, turn it 10-20 degrees, expand it again, and go around the whole lens once or twice. Don't just part it on your dent and crank it hard: you'll take the threads out of round and leave your lens even harder to thread filters onto than it started out.
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Reviews with images
No threads on vice
The concept works if you go slow. However the one I ordered has no threads to help straighten out dented threads. My threads where dented down toward the glass as well as in. I needed threads to help straighten that out. On a second lens I had a filter on, I needed threads to grip the filter so I could unscrew the damaged filter.This one only had a plastic cover to help protect the threads from being bent when you use it. That won't help you straighten threads that are bent down. It they are only bent in I am sure this would work.I returned this and purchased another brand with threads. The vice with threads did work to remove the filter and straighten the threads.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2024
Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2021
Dropped my Canon 24-70mm USM bending both the filter and the lens filter ring. Hoped it might be just the filter, so I used the tool to straighten the filter. It still would not come off so I used a pair of wire cutters to remove the filter. (Picture shows the straightened 77mm filter with bent filter ring before filter removal.)
Note that when using this tool on the lens, you must have the threads aligned and the gap between the tool and the top of the lens filter ring the same on both sides of the tool when viewed from the side of the lens. This is relatively easy to do if you set the tool on the metal ledge of the lens just below the threads. I tried the method indicated by some commenters to offset the tool slightly from the dent, lightly tighten the tool, then rotate the tool across the dent. While this may work for slight dents, the one I had was so acute that this method didn't get me anywhere, as the tool would not rotate across the dent at all. So I placed the tool directly on the dent, and over a period of a couple of hours I would repeatedly tighten the tool fairly tight, let it set for 15-20 min, then loosen and observe the curvature around the dent. I really recommend having a new filter available to set on the lens for determining when you have gone far enough. Once the dent was removed, I noticed that while the filter fit the lens on the diagonal line passing through the dent and the center of the lens at 77mm, the line perpendicular to it was only around 75mm. So I had turned the circular filter ring into a slight oval. The solution was to place the tool perpendicular (90 degrees) to its position when removing the dent. I used about half the torque that I used to straighten the dent to gradually (as indicated above) turn the oval back into a 77mm circle. Check the new filter fit by trying to install it after each tightening repetition, however before doing so, be sure to remove any metallic particles from the filter threads and check thread integrity in the dented area as this will affect the ease of filter installation.
Note that when using this tool on the lens, you must have the threads aligned and the gap between the tool and the top of the lens filter ring the same on both sides of the tool when viewed from the side of the lens. This is relatively easy to do if you set the tool on the metal ledge of the lens just below the threads. I tried the method indicated by some commenters to offset the tool slightly from the dent, lightly tighten the tool, then rotate the tool across the dent. While this may work for slight dents, the one I had was so acute that this method didn't get me anywhere, as the tool would not rotate across the dent at all. So I placed the tool directly on the dent, and over a period of a couple of hours I would repeatedly tighten the tool fairly tight, let it set for 15-20 min, then loosen and observe the curvature around the dent. I really recommend having a new filter available to set on the lens for determining when you have gone far enough. Once the dent was removed, I noticed that while the filter fit the lens on the diagonal line passing through the dent and the center of the lens at 77mm, the line perpendicular to it was only around 75mm. So I had turned the circular filter ring into a slight oval. The solution was to place the tool perpendicular (90 degrees) to its position when removing the dent. I used about half the torque that I used to straighten the dent to gradually (as indicated above) turn the oval back into a 77mm circle. Check the new filter fit by trying to install it after each tightening repetition, however before doing so, be sure to remove any metallic particles from the filter threads and check thread integrity in the dented area as this will affect the ease of filter installation.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2017
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2024
The concept works if you go slow. However the one I ordered has no threads to help straighten out dented threads. My threads where dented down toward the glass as well as in. I needed threads to help straighten that out. On a second lens I had a filter on, I needed threads to grip the filter so I could unscrew the damaged filter.
This one only had a plastic cover to help protect the threads from being bent when you use it. That won't help you straighten threads that are bent down. It they are only bent in I am sure this would work.
I returned this and purchased another brand with threads. The vice with threads did work to remove the filter and straighten the threads.
This one only had a plastic cover to help protect the threads from being bent when you use it. That won't help you straighten threads that are bent down. It they are only bent in I am sure this would work.
I returned this and purchased another brand with threads. The vice with threads did work to remove the filter and straighten the threads.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2018
Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
Well made, a pleasure to use
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2022
