I'm just back from San Francisco, a chance to see some of our dealers in the Bay Area and to spend the weekend with my son and daughter-in-law. In the course of a visit to Keeble & Shuchat Photography, in Palo Alto, I left the store with a Canon accessory that I've been wanting for a number of years but never knew existed.

Like many professionals, I have loved and worked with Canon's G-series for a long time. My first was the G2, and at the time it was an $800 camera and worth it. Now we're at the G12 with a price of around $400 and the swing-out, tiltable screen that was a feature of the G2 way back when. My current model is the G11, and what I've always wanted is the ability to use filters on it. Canon happens to have a perfect add-on, the FA-DC58B, which fits the G10, G11, and G12 cameras. What is also interesting is that this adapter is something I think thousands of G-series shooters would buy instantly, if not for the fact that its existence is buried deep within Canon's site. A couple of major professional dealers I mentioned it to had no idea it was even available. But I asked the right question of the right people at K&S and for less than $50, I've greatly extended the creative capability of what is already a great camera.

To use the adapter, just remove the ring that surrounds the lens (push the release button and rotate the ring a bit); then replace that ring with the adapter, which has a 58mm screw-in front thread, and add whatever filter you want, with no vignetting at any focal length. Even though there is a built-in 2-stop ND filter in the camera's menu, I often want to extend shutter speeds even more. So adding a 3-stop ND gets me just where I want to be. And if lens protection is what you need, a simple UV filter will work. I also find a lot of use for a Low-Contrast filter in landscape photos.

I mentioned the adapter to my friend and fellow photographer Allan Weitz, and within the day it was up on his very informative blog, fotoBistro.com. If you are shooting any of the more recent G-series Canons, it is definitely something you need to have in your kit.