Canon 22mm step-up ring + ND filter + bracket okay?

nnowak wrote:

Volph wrote:

Hi Yall,

I was wondering if anyone knows if it's okay put on a step-up ring, a variable ND filter, and a filter bracket on the canon 22mm f2 lens? I think there's a weight limit on that lens but I'm not sure the exact weight it can hold.

Thanks!

If you have noticed, the filter thread moves forward and back as the lens focuses. This filter thread is tied directly to the focus mechanism inside the lens. The focus mechanism inside the 22mm is not exactly what I would call "robust". The weight of the filter and step up ring should be fine, but you need to take extreme care to ensure nothing bumps this combo while it is on the lens. Any impact to the filter stack will transfer directly to the focus mechanism. The larger the filter stack, the more precarious this all becomes. More than one 22mm has been killed due to seemingly minor impacts to the filter threads.

I only know of one incident.  And that occurrence was from someone who dropped their 22mm lens whilst using a large, projecting, aluminium screw-on lens hood from a third party that was an imitation of the "Leica-style" hoods... which is why I never bought one for the EF-M 22mm lens.  If you dropped the lens with this type of hood attached (while the lens was open/on), anything at all would be possible because the threads for this lens go onto the moving part of the lens mechanism.  So don't drop your lens - because having a filter attached to the front of it would be the very least of your problems.  In fact, the lens would suffer far more from the impact of the drop - with or without a filter attached.
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When a filter Stepping-Ring is attached to the 22mm lens in the OFF position, the lens array is withdrawn/retracted.  Any pressure applied to one side of the attached rings or subsequent filter is offset on the other side of where the pressure is applied.  The motors on the lens train have no issue moving a heavier filter and since there's a limit to the distance of travel that is merely millimeters, there's no strain on the motor.
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Since this is one of the cheapest Canon EF-M lenses on the market today (it's even cheaper than the filter I use on it), I don't think there's any concern with risk.  Canon designed the EF-M 22mm lens to accept a 43mm filter thread, just like the 28mm and 32mm lenses.  You can double stack UV and CPL filters to this lens without any problem at all.  Larger filters using stepping rings to mount to the 43mm threads on this lens have not been a problem in the last 4 years for me.
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