We moaned loud and long when we discovered that our new Panasonic Lumix LX5 compact camera wouldn’t take the ‘exploding’ Ricoh LC1 lens cap that we’d managed to botch on to our LX3 cameras.
Happily, a third party Chinese manufacturer has stepped into the breach and released their JJC Lens Cap, which is near identical copy of the Ricoh lens cap – so close in fact that we suspect their legal team will be busy penning ‘cease and desist’ letters right now.
We received the JJC lens cap today and have to say we’re as pleased as Punch.
Perfect fit
Unlike the Ricoh lens cap which had to be thumped on to fit the lens thread of the LX3, the JJC one has a proper screw thread, so you just take off the LX5’s lens ring, and screw it on.
The LX5’s lens movement doesn’t travel as far as the LX3, so there’s no need to botch the lens cap with bits of foam either – and so far it’s worked perfectly.
It’s a must have!
If you’ve never used one of these lens caps on your Lumix camera, we strongly urge you to give it a go.
Instead of having to fumble about removing the lens cap, you can just fire up the camera and you’re ready to go – it really can make the difference between capturing a shot or not – and you’ll never have to worry about losing the lens cap again.
Get in quick!
We’ve no idea if this product will stay in production for long, but we can’t recommend it enough – so we urge you to get your order in quick!
We got ours for £12 off eBay, direct from JJC in China, but there’s a few other vendors now available if you look around – expect to pay anything up to £16, and as far as we’re concerned, it’s worth every penny.
[JJC]
Does it fit the lx3?
Do you get any issues with vignetting ? and if you did did you do anything to fix it using this lens cap ?
Rex: you just unscrew the lens ring on the LX5 and the JJC cap screws straight on – it’s a far better fit than the LX3/Ricoh combination.
I haven’t seen any vignetting issues at all.
Hi Mike S,
Thanks for highlighting this JJC.
Say, Wondering if this JJC-add-on will work with Panasonic LX5’s Lens Conversion Adapter?
I am a first time Lumix owner and I just recently got the LX5 after seeing how great the Lx3 that my friend has. And yes, probably the one and only issue I have with the cam is the lens cap. I am so happy I came across this article! Will try my best to grab one of these alternative caps. Thanks!
Ditto; first time Lumix (I didn’t even know if the LX5 lens came out or stayed static) and absolute beginner with photography. Ordered LX5 after reading great reviews, from Amazon SARL, big saving at £302, as nearest was Comet at £349. That exploding lens cap looks the biz, any ideas where to order one? Thanks for the tip.
Excellent review and good tip regarding the exploding lens cap ! Ordered mine from ebay for approx £10.00. If anyone’s interested in a review of the LX5 .vs. Cannon’s mighty 5d Mark II check this out you’ll be glad you bought the LX5 !
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?page_id=169031
Thank you for the great post about the exploding lens cap for the LX5. I just ordered the camera and also ordered the lens cap you mentioned. I also liked the review of the LX3 vs. the 5D MkII Naresh added since the 5D MkII is my regular camera. I would be interested to see the same comparison with the LX5 and see if the differences are even less now. Thanks again.
I’ve had this JJC cap for 6+ months. Best accessory purchase ever. No vignetting at all, and you can turn it off and put the camera in your pocket and then take it out and be ready to take a shot in a second or two.