Flare and the Hasselblad 50mm Distagon CF T*

[rulnacco]

A bit late to the party, but a good reason to choose the compendium hood (I found a good deal on the later one, so I use it) is that you can set it for the ideal length for the 50mm lens. The problem with the 38-60 hood, despite its much more compact size, is that it is also designed to go on a significantly wider lens than the 50. So as a result, it has to be wider and shorter than a hood designed specifically for the 50 would be, and consequently less effective. With the compendium, you can extend it farther out so it will give at least fairly good shielding from the sun when it's outside the field of view, but just short of to where it would cause vignetting.

 

[Arthurwg]

A bit late to the party, but a good reason to choose the compendium hood (I found a good deal on the later one, so I use it) is that you can set it for the ideal length for the 50mm lens. The problem with the 38-60 hood, despite its much more compact size, is that it is also designed to go on a significantly wider lens than the 50. So as a result, it has to be wider and shorter than a hood designed specifically for the 50 would be, and consequently less effective. With the compendium, you can extend it farther out so it will give at least fairly good shielding from the sun when it's outside the field of view, but just short of to where it would cause vignetting.

Good point.

 

[Sirius Glass]

The 38-60 hood works for me on my 50mm lens. If it did not I would have either looked for a longer hood or modified the 80mm hood to shorten it.

 

[logan2z]

I picked up a 6093 hood and will try it the next time I'm out with the 500 C/M.

The 38-60 hood works for me most of the time but the lens has flared in a few instances and I'd prefer to avoid it.

 

[Michael Mutmansky]

I made a hood for my 50mm lens by cutting down one of the aftermarket hoods (fotifiox, I think) that is made for the 60-80mm lens... Basically, using the wide hood on the 50mm is really not having much of a hood on there.

I have the 38mm-60mm hood shown in the photos, and I have the 60mm-80mm hood (not shown) for the 80mm lens. I got a second 60-80 hood and then looked at the length of the hood. Then, I tested that longer hood on the 50mm lens and it certainly did vignette a bit (easily visible in the ground glass).

With the table saw, I cut about 1/2 the length difference of the 38-60 and the 60-80 hood off and then re-tested. I think I decided to shave a touch more off because in the corners, there was a very slight vignettte when stopped down due to the rounding on the hood.

Sand the edges a little and it's all good. A perfectly matched hood for the 50mm lens. You could do the same for any lens but going longer on the hood and then shortening the hood to match (but nobody makes super long hoods for the telephoto lenses, but that isn't really when a nicely matched hood will be useful anyway).

 

[Sirius Glass]

I made a hood for my 50mm lens by cutting down one of the aftermarket hoods (fotifiox, I think) that is made for the 60-80mm lens... Basically, using the wide hood on the 50mm is really not having much of a hood on there.

I have the 38mm-60mm hood shown in the photos, and I have the 60mm-80mm hood (not shown) for the 80mm lens. I got a second 60-80 hood and then looked at the length of the hood. Then, I tested that longer hood on the 50mm lens and it certainly did vignette a bit (easily visible in the ground glass).

With the table saw, I cut about 1/2 the length difference of the 38-60 and the 60-80 hood off and then re-tested. I think I decided to shave a touch more off because in the corners, there was a very slight vignettte when stopped down due to the rounding on the hood.

Sand the edges a little and it's all good. A perfectly matched hood for the 50mm lens. You could do the same for any lens but going longer on the hood and then shortening the hood to match (but nobody makes super long hoods for the telephoto lenses, but that isn't really when a nicely matched hood will be useful anyway).

Can you show the hood compared to the 60mm/80mm and the original 50mm. alsothe different photographs of the same scene with the 50mm and your lendhood.

 

[jlirola]

I get bad flare on my CFI 50mm.. I also broke off some of the plastic rim on it - wondering - is there a place to get a replacement rim? I saw there was someone making a steel rim for it in Japan, but they're sold out ....

 

[Arthurwg]

A compendium hood is your best bet. Or use an app like photopills to plan where the sun will be and avoid shooting directly into the sun...

Always worried that the compendium hood would catch any breeze outside, which might case a slight blur.

 

[eli griggs]

I have a 50mm Distagon CF T* lens that I love, but it does seem to have a tendency to flare when the sun is just outside the frame. I have the correct hood for it, but it is pretty small and clearly doesn't do a great job at reducing flare. I've tried shading the lens with my hand, but I like to shoot in mirror-up mode and my hand has been known to encroach on the frame

Is anyone aware of another Hasselblad hood that will work with this lens and do a better job at flare reduction?

Here's an image showing the sort of flare that I'm referring to (upper right):

You might consider carrying a light, light stand, a Pony clamp, some black card stock, or roll of black "tin", with a sand bag or two, for easy to get to scenes or in it studio, to be certain.


With your hood on, but still having flare, you can set up the stand, and facing the lens, decide where a card or piece of tin can by positioned, clamped to stop exposure to glare or direct light, without interference with the picture.

You'd be surprised how often you can use this to end flare.

The tin forms the best light shields but cards from 4"*5" on up are great to, when black.




Try it, and Cheers,
Eli