Lens hoods

[Lee Shively]

For as long as I can remember (okay, my memory is pretty short but my experience is about 35 years long), I've always bought a lens hood for every lens. When a proprietary hood wasn't available, I've bought generic hoods. I know they work in keeping out stray light and help protect the front element but, dammit, they take up a lot of space in the bags! The hoods for wide angle zooms are the worst--they're the size of dinner plates! Even "normal" hoods sometimes prevent storing lenses in the compartments of smaller bags.

I end up with lens hoods loose in my bags, lying on top of everything. I have to dig around them to get to equipment and sort out the hoods as to which one fits the lens in use. I'm frustrated! I started shooting occasionally without a hood and, thus far, I've had no ill effects. As of this weekend, I'm leaving them off all lenses to see just how much of a benefit they are. My guess is that I can shade the lens with my hand or my hat just as effectively.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Try a multi-position hood, like the one made by Hama, and use it for several lenses.

If you just shoot for a weekend without one, you won't really be able to tell anything. Try making side-by-side shots, one with the hood, one without one using slide film or comparing results on contact sheets made at a uniform exposure. In many situations, a proper hood (and often, even the manufacturer's hood is insufficient, particularly the hoods for zooms), will improve contrast.

 

[David H. Bebbington]

For some time I've been buying cheap metal lens hoods from India - I always have a hood ready-fitted to every lens in my bag. This not only guards against flare but means I can put lenses down on rocks etc, out of doors by standing them on the hood and know they will not be damaged, Furthermore, should I drop a lens (fortunately I haven't) the hood will make a handy deformation zone!

 

[Paul Howell]

When I was a working JP I never used a hood, got in the way, lost them, no room in the bag, the only issue I noticed with flare occured when I used a wide angle such as 24 or 28mm. But with my new zooms lens for my SA7 and 9 35 I find that, at least with Sigma, zooms are much prone to flare so I keep a lens on at all time when shooting. Over the past 20 years I have just gotten in the habit of using a hood even with my Pentax primes.

 

[Curt]

When I went to Brooks Institute of Photography I was taught a technique for large format photography. It was to use the dark slide as a lens protector. Hold the slide to shade the lens. If you hold it up and just out of the field of view you can cast a shadow on the lens. It's cheap and available plus no storage or loss problems.

Curt

 

[pgomena]

I also have used the same technique Curt suggested. Learned it in the same place. As a result, I have several otherwise fine 4x5 images with darkslides protruding into the frame. While a darkslide will work in a pinch, I bought a Lee lenshade and a couple of adapter rings and have had zero problems since. The Lee shades are adjustable, too. Might be a bit big for 35mm, but good for medium and large formats.

Peter Gomena

 

[eddym]

While a darkslide will work in a pinch, I bought a Lee lenshade and a couple of adapter rings and have had zero problems since. The Lee shades are adjustable, too. Might be a bit big for 35mm, but good for medium and large formats.

Peter Gomena

I have a Lee shade too, and it is very good. I'd like to use it on my Rollei 6003, but can't find an adapter to fit the Rollei bayonet. Anybody know if they make one?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

The darkslide technique will keep sunlight (or studio light) from falling directly on the lens, but it won't restrict the excess image circle on all sides of the frame, which is another source of flare.

 

[Lee Shively]

My dark slide and lens hood will now be a cheap straw hat or a "gimme" cap.

 

[Woolliscroft]

One of the nice things about the Leica R system is that a lot of the lenses have slide out hoods that actually form part of the lens.

David.

 

[Tiara]

How much are lens hoods usually? I know they can very in price, but what is the average prices?

 

[jovo]

How much are lens hoods usually? I know they can very in price, but what is the average prices?

Welcome to apug, Tiara. Check www.bhphotovideo.com for prices and varieties of hoods. They become more expensive (as do filters) as the size increases, and are more costly when proprietary than when generic. Compendium hoods are adjustable and suited to the rectangular format of the camera for which they are intended. They are more expensive as a single purchase, but not necessarily more expensive when compared to outfitting a number of lenses with proprietary, large circumference hoods. (The compendiums are usually only made for certain medium and large format cameras.)

 

[Tiara]

Thanks, I will check it out.

 

[CBG]

The Lee hoods store fairly flat. One hood can do for a lot of lenses and not take up your whole camera bag. Other system hoods are probably similar. If you don't use the square Lee style filters, you can get rid of the filter clips and shrink the package, which makes it a better hood for extreme wide lenses.

C

 

[Nick Zentena]

Used hoods can be great deals. www.keh.com often has all kinds.

 

[haris]

Lee, I think you need a reason to justify expences for new and bigger bag

 

[middy]

I use the rubber collapsible hoods on normal lenses. They hardly take up any space.

 

[edz]

I do have a collection of hoods but often don't use them. Sometimes but not always. If its a hood model that's not in the way I'll sometimes use it but most of the time with street shooting I just work around it. This is how I shot cine and its also how I shoot still. If I need some light control instead of a hood I'll pull out a compendium (Mattebox) and maybe even some French flags (what some people here using their darkslides for). I don't want to suggest that hoods don't have their use. They really do, especially onTLRs or some of the historical flare prone uncoated glass I like but if I think I don't need it I'll remove it and toss it into a bag...

 

[Allan Swindles]

OK, so lens hoods aren't essential and are a pain, as are filters, tripods, cable releases, cleaning cloths and brushes. Don't worry about that smudge on the lens, if you haven't bothered with the rest it won't matter. Perhaps an overstatement but you must get my drift.