Lee compendium hood not suitable for 4x5?

butterfly

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Folks, advice please..

I wanted to buy a Lee hood for my 4x5. The widest lens I use is a 90mm f4.5 rodenstock grandagon. I e-mailed Robert white uk to ask if the standard or wide-angle version would be most suitable. This is the reply:

'It is our opinion that the Lee hood will result in vignetting issues and not even the wide angle will be good enough'.

I often bow to their superior knowledge but cannot believe Lee hoods are not suitable for my needs!

Comments appreciated.

Steve
 

David A. Goldfarb

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I think that reply is more about the lens than the hood. A 90/4.5 Grandagon is probably wide enough that the adapter for a Lee system could vignette even before you attach the hood if you need the maximum image circle, but you may still have plenty of image circle to work with on 4x5". You would have to test it to find out whether it will be a problem for you.
 

Sean McEntee

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I have a Lee Hood and with my Schneider SA 90mm I get vignetting with the mounting ring, before the hood is even attached. Sorry I can't say for the Rodenstock, but you could compare image circles. I some times use blackwrap (cinefoil) to make a shade in the field.
 

David A. Goldfarb

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B+W makes a nice screw-in rubber wide angle hood.
 
OP
OP

butterfly

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Thanks for the replies. I saw a B+W wide angle metal hood. £50 !! Apparently they are hand made and stamped with the individual makers name ! But if it does the job..
 

Martin Aislabie

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I don't bother with a lens hood - I just flag with the dark slide

It has the added advantage that I know I have the darkslide out when I trigger the shutter (I think we have all done that one)

A LF Lens Hood needs to be so wide to take into account movements - that is has virtually no value

Martin
 

colrehogan

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Lee makes a wide angle adapter which should be fine. I have one (a wide angle adapter) for my 90 mm Nikkor-SW lens, but haven't used 4x5 in a while. I'm pretty sure I've used it before with no vignetting problems.
 

fschifano

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using the darkslide as a shade is the simplest method and with a little care can work as well as and other shade. But the rest of your argument doesn't hold water. A screw on lens hood is attached to the lens and moves with it when you make adjustments to the standard. A compendium type lens shade is attached to the front standard and moves when you make adjustments to the standard. If there is no interference (vignetting) with the standard centered, how can it be a problem when shifted if the whole setup moves as a unit? Adjustments to the back of the camera can be troublesome in either case.
 

Martin Aislabie

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Frank, you are effectively looking out through a different areas of the lens to get movements

Hence the lens hood has to be set to a wide angle than the angle of view of the lens

If you have a few minutes try it for yourself

Martin
 

David A. Goldfarb

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With a compendium hood that has its own movements, you can adjust the shade for camera movements.

A darkslide may keep the sun off the front element, but the object of a compendium shade is to eliminate all non-image light that could reduce contrast from reflections within the lens or from the bellows. Also with a very wide lens a handheld flag of any sort is liable to dip into the image area between composing the shot on the groundglass, inserting the holder, and making the exposure.
 

RobC

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I have the slotted square lee lens hood. It is fine with my 110 and 210 lenses. It is not fine with my 72 lens. For a 90mm lens the slotted wide angle hood may be OK. But the normal wide lens hood which also requires the filter holder to be attached to lens first, will vignette the lens.
The lee system was designed for medium and 35mm formats. It works on large format too but you have to be careful when you get down to wide lenses.
If its a fast lense the physical size of the front element plays a part because the greater the diameter, the more likely you are to get vignetting. Lee say the wide angle slotted hood should not vignette a 90 lens but it gives so little shading that its barely worth it for the cost.
 

RobC

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Don't forget that its all very well the hood not vignetting when everything is centred and square on the camera. But when you introduce some tilt and shift it very likely will vignette so in short for wide angle lenses, you are better off using your dark slide to shade the lens from direct sun.
 
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