VC 21mm hood alternative ?

[henry_ting2]

Any Leica users use a hood other than the one from Cameraquest for

the 21mm VC lens ? I'm looking for an alternative.

[sammer]

My experience has been that the little hood that comes with the lens - although wimpy - works just fine and keeps the overall profile of camera and lens very compact. I especially like the fact that you can slip the included metal lens cap on right over it... something you can't do with the rect shade.

 

I know this doesn't answer your question as, if you have already have the lens, you're probably using the small shade now. I've shot in fairly bright sun without flare probs using the little shade - from what I've heard, the rect shade performs no differently.

[new hampshire john]

Henry -

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I plumped for the big square one, but from using it I can tell you the following, none of which you don't already know if you've used the lens: the filter mounts on the exterior of the barrel, and thus the barrel has the female threads and the hood the male threads -- so my intuition is that you could use a step-<i>down</i> ring (reversed) in order to get a hood "effect" from an alternative....

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...of course, by the time you figure out which size/brand step-down ring matches the barrel mount size (not too hard as the lens comes with the little hood, just measure that) <i>and</i> the appropriate depth of such a ring in order to give maximum protection without vignetting, I suspect you'd be better off either just using the little hood or springing for the new one.

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What I'd really like to see is a square cap to fit on the end of the square hood.

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LMK how it goes, I'm interested to hear of your results.

[henry_ting2]

Sam, I have to disagree with you on this. The built-in hood for the VC21mm is no more than just a flange and that's why Cameraquest comes out with the big square hood and I dislike it because even viewing it from the external VF, the hood blocks a good chunk of real estate.

[mike dixon]

I also just use the little round "hood"--it doesn't do a lot to shade

the front of the lens, but it does protect it from bumping into thing

(took less than a week to start collecting nicks in the rim of the

hood). The 21/f4 is VERY resistant to flare; it beats all of my

older Leitz glass in that respect by a significant margin.

[Robin Smith]

I agree with Mike, when I had the lens I found the small wimpy hood just fine. I found life is too short to get anything else. I had no flare problem.

[new hampshire john]

Henry - you might just try it with the included hood for a while. I guess the group consensus is that it is "good enough." And as with all things (including the Leitz - CV dialectic itself), it's a cost-benefit analysis. Personally, it was worth it to me to get the additional coverage and get it at the same time as I picked up the lens. I guess I'd still recommend the step-down ring if you were looking for a work-around, though.

[sammer]

'The built-in hood for the VC21mm is no more than just a flange and that's why Cameraquest comes out with the big square hood...'

 

Henry, the little hood for the lens is nothing spectacular - on this I agree with you completely. All I'm saying is, speaking strictly to performance, it is good enough. I have not had significant flare issues even in brite sun with this lens; therefore, I'm inclined to not purchase a bigger bulkier hood when I don't see the benefit. The only benefit I am aware of with this hood is the 'coolness' factor. That is, it just looks sexier. As I do not have a sexy or cool bone in my body, I don't see why my camera should.

 

Regarding alternatives, you'll be hard pressed to find something that works without causing vignetting on such a wide angle lens.

 

Perhaps it's best to ask WHY you need this hood - is it for protection, flare prevention, both, or neither? Have you experienced flare with the small hood or do you not trust it to protect your lens?