Inexpensive red filter

[Robert Gillcash]

I am NOT impressed with the fact that I will have to pay some ridiculous price for a bit of colored plastic that fits over my lens. So, being the creative (read that as cheap) person that I am, I decided to go a different route.
A trip to the local dollar store resulted in a pack of three sheets of colored acetate: red, green and opaque. (Originally I was searching for a flash diffuser.)
At home, I measured the diameter of the lens, found a cup the right size and drew a circle. I then measured the depth the front of the lens was away from the housing and added an inch, and found a plate that size. After wrapping the plate in saran wrap, I used a black marker to draw a circle. A bit of cutting resulted in this:

I then measured a line to fold again, and did a bit of folding, with this result:

The black ring is a band I got for free at one of those health fairs, supposed to go around your wrist and give you energy. Just happens to fit nicely around the lens housing!
And the final result?

Yup, there you go, a one dollar red filter. Now you don't have to cry when you scratch it or lose it!

 

[CheddarChick]

Did you ever take pictures with your DIY? Would love to see them...

 

[daz88]

can you adjust the WB on your camera? most cameras have this option and works much better than a red filter.

 

[dfx]

I'm also curious about the results. Being cheap too, I also tried to use a cheap, half DIY filter for my video setup. I wasn't too impressed with the results. The problem was that while most of the time the filter did its job quite well, the cheap material of it was causing unpredictable glare in certain circumstances.