500mm f4 is filters

Hi there, does anyone know where to get filters for the 500mm f4 is lens, thanks in advance.

The 500/4 uses drop-in filters at the rear. There are no threads to put a filter on the front (thankfully! it would cost a frickin' fortune for a 130mm filter!)

A drop-in filter must always be fitted, is part of the optical formula of the lens, so the lens comes with a gel holder with a "sky" filter in it. You can buy another holder of that type and use gel filters or can get one that can be fitted with standard 52mm screw-in filters (of your choice). But, if you want a polarizer, you have to buy a special, drop-in version that has an external dial to be able to rotate the filter.

52mm screw-in filter holder

C-Pol drop-in filter

Gel drop-in filter holder

Note: the front element of the 500/4 IS is a "plain" element, no optical properties, just multi-coated. Supposedly this serves as a protection filter and is relatively inexpensive to replace (well, cheaper than replacing a compound element or group of elements). Also, the lens hood is quite deep, does a really good job protecting the front element.

Also, the same 52mm drop-in filters and drop-in filter holders can be shared among all the IS super teles (200/2 IS, 300/2.8 IS, 400/4 DO IS, 400/2.8 IS, 500/4 IS, 600/4 IS, 800/5.6 IS), as far as I know including all the new Mark II's (300, 400, 500 and 600mm Mk II's). On the other hand, the earlier, non-IS super tele lenses (200/1.8, 300/2.8, 400/2.8, 500/4.5, 600/4, 1200/5.6) all use 48mm filters and holders.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm curious to why you are using a filter with one

It looks like these are once again available. I actually lost the drop in filter holder last year for my 500 and played holy hell finding a new one. I was fortunate enough to find one at Roberts Camera in Indianapolis, but other than that EVERYONE, including Canon, was out of stock on them. Oh, there were some to be had on eBay for over double the retail price. Funny how that works. The CP filter is really neat, I have one and it works quite well.
BTW, for a couple weeks while I was trying to locate a replacement for the drop in filter holder, I was shooting with nothing in that slot, only a piece of strong tape covering the opening to keep dust and dirt out of the lens, and I really saw no difference in IQ, and I was looking pretty closely. Not that I'm recommending taking the filter out, but it wasn't the end of the world when it wasn't there.

J.Litton wrote in post #14231559
I'm curious to why you are using a filter with one

When I was shooting film, I had a drop-n set up with a warming filter that I used a lot. Now shooting digital practically exclusively, I don't use it much.

With some subjects a polarizer, in particular, can be really useful. For example, it's not the same lens, but I wish I'd used a C-Pol for the following....

Although a shot like this might benefit more from a drop-in "Big Stopper", it's beneficial to be able to use even a .9 so you're not at f/27 like I was here to get down to 1/60...