ok, good advice. i am going to go thru this whole checklist. I may have found yet another possible culprit, which comes under the "duh" catagory ....

while examining the raynox i discovered a thin black ring which came installed on the lens. it was on very tight and I had not noticed it b4. it seems to be a 37 mm male female transition ring, which turns out to be redundant with the 37 - 43 step up. so i have taken that off also & i hope that proves to be a part of the solution. on my way out 2 shoot now ...