flower hood vs. lens hood

im going to be getting a lens hood but dont know what type to get. it seems as

if the most common ones are the flower hoods...but i was shopping on ebay and

found one that said it was a new 3 stage lens hood which kinda looks cool...any

ideas out there? thanks...

Which lens do you have? Canon only makes 1 type for each lens. Any more detailed answer will require knowledge of which lens you have.

<p>Yup, what he said.</p>

 

<p>In general, hoods for 35mm and digital SLR lenses are either somewhere between conical and cylindrical, or petal-shaped. The former are typically used for longer lenses, where the horizontal and vertical angles of view aren't all that far from each other. The latter are typically used for wider lenses, where the angles are quite different and a cone/cylinder-shaped hood which was large enough to be effective would be uncomfortably large.</p>

 

<p>One main exception to the above is for lenses whose front elements rotate during focusing. If the hood attaches to the front end of the lens and the front end turns with the front element (which is usually, though not always, the case), a petal-shaped hood cannot be used, because it would rotate with focusing.</p>

 

<p>Can you provide a link to this "new 3 stage lens hood"? I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not familiar with the term, and can't comment on what advantages or disadvantages it might have.</p>

It's probably just a generic rubber lens hood which can sort of fold out to three positions. It's

not optimized for any lens or anything, and it probably screws onto the filter mount rather

than clipping to the end of the lens, and it won't be made be Canon.

 

It'll be adjustable, though, for what that's worth.

i thought i put my lens specs up already...anyways...here it is...again...

efs 17-85mm, 67mm

Then you want the dedicated EW-73B Lens Hood. It is a flower shaped hood.

<p>The original poster emailed me a link to the item in question: <a href="http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=015&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=250076349702&rd=1&rd=1">http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=015&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=250076349702&rd=1&rd=1</a></p>

 

<p>It indeed looks like a collapsible rubber hood. On the positive side, it will likely be significantly cheaper than the official Canon hood, and is adjustable so that if you're careful, you may get better coverage. The negatives? If you're not careful in adjusting it and then checking in the viewfinder, you'll get darkened corners on your pictures. As it's collapsible, you won't get as much physical protection as you would with the Canon hood. And I wouldn't be surprised if the Canon hood were to provide better flare protection at wide zoom positions, but that's purely a guess.</p>

I just picked up one of these. I forget if it was Adorama or BHPhoto. It is a rubber hood made by Hoya. Three stages and it covers from wide angle to telephoto (35-200mm). Seems to work ok, I picked it up for an old manual lens in which it was impossible to find the original hood. Relatively inexpensive at $20 and seems to work.

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=Search&A=details&Q=&sku=23167&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

You know you can even make your own lens hood:

http://www.lenshoods.co.uk/faq.php

The original lens hood is more expensive and looks less cool but it is much more effective in preventing flare and as a physical protector.

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.