I bought some nice Konica Hexanon lenses and I have my AR-m4/3s adapter on the way. I bought the 55mm lens caps for like $1 each. But why are the REAR lens caps a minimum of $7? Am I searching Ebay incorrectly? You can pretty much get any style for $1 but I can't find these. It sucks because I need at least 2, possibly 3 of them
I take it, then, that you don't keep an adapter on each lens at all times? Is that the hold down the traveling weight? Or to save money?
This. I always keep the adapter on my lens. Even if they utilize the same adapter, I'll buy more and place them on each lens. I have several Olympus rear caps which can be bought for cheap on ebay and place those on the adapter.
I looked on ebay and the caps for Konica/Hexanon lenses are all old out of production sales from private individuals and camera shops. $7 for a rear cap with the shipping included is not out of line! The cheap Nikon/Canon/m4/3 etc caps are sold directly from the factory in China or maybe a shop in Hong Kong. I do not care for some of those cheapy caps! I have had one crack and others that were very loose. Factory caps or at least good copies are much better and do cost a bit more. B&H wants $4 for a Olympus m4/3 rear cap{no shipping included!}.
Yes, but it saves time when you want to switch a lens, not to mention it standardizes your lens caps so if you lose one they're all interchangeable.
My point was that while it may be a great philosophy for the two of you, it is a bit OT from the question the OP asked. I did find one on Ebay that was $5 link There is also a thread I found on MFLenses.com talking about how OM and 4/3 caps seem to fit fairly well. Thread
Independently of the economic factor, there may be one good reason not to use one adapter for each lens: at least on my adapter (Minolta to m43) the rear mounting surface (the one that goes against the camera) is plain anodized aluminum (i.e. not designed for wear), while the front one is some sort of harder metal. Depending on how often you change your lenses the camera's mounting surface may get damaged or scratched (usually the harder material fares worse), while the adapter's surface that is actually designed for wear (the front one) will never see any action. The amount of wear on the camera may be minimal, but I feel a bit better knowing that the surface that gets worked more can be replaced for $20 My 2 cents.