2026-11-03 Removing Filters Stuck On Lenses

I recently acquired a Canon A-1 that came with a dented-rim Kitstar Coated UV filter on its FD 50 mm f/1.8 lens. The dent was relatively unnoticeable, but it bothered me that installing any more filters was going to be impossible.
    I had tried the standard unscrewing tricks. I placed a jar lid rubber pad on the kitchen counter and tried twisting the mounted-on-camera-lens face down. That didn’t work, the pad just twisted up and lost grip. I used my palm against the rim twisting again, and again had no luck. I was slightly afraid I was going to damage the lens.
    So I resolved to try gripping the very rim of the filter’s threads with a set of pliers and then hit the pliers with a hammer in a rotary direction. If you thought I was in danger of hurting the lens before, I was well past that with this maneuver!
    The pliers wouldn’t grip well enough. so I tried bending the metal filter rim out to make it less distorted. Nothing changed. It still wouldn’t unscrew from the lens.

    Then I thought maybe removing the glass from the filter might relieve some tension on the threads. I drove a pointed tool between the retainer ring and the threaded filter mount. While bending it out I was surprised when a small chunk of the retainer ring pinged off the room’s wall. The retainer ring is plastic.
    The retainer ring and glass filter fell out of the rim. Then the filter mount simply unscrewed from the lens.
    When next back in the store buying another lens, I again encountered a stuck-on filter. The store owner said, “Just use your shoe.” I was perplexed by the suggestion. How to use a shoe? Take the shoe off and use it as a hammer to smash the glass? Take the shoe off and use the sides of the shoe to grip the rim of the filter? What?
    The owner asked to have the lens back cross the counter. Then he bent backwards—while still perched on a stool—and reached down with the lens to press the filter against his shoe’s rubber heel. He twisted his arm once and held the lens back up to me. I found the filter was loose and easily unscrewed. It did have some dust on it, pressed in a pattern suspiciously similar to the texture of a shoe heel. The filter wasn’t scratched and cleaned up as good as new.
    

    Finally, and this image isn’t a really good illustration of the trick, you can use an “exercise/stress” ball. You want a ball large enough the rim of the filter gets a good “bite” on the ball. Then you use the ball’s additional grip and your additional torque to remove the filter.