Alternative Lens Shades

[richard_meyers]

I don't know if this will be of use to anyone but I recently purchased

an M4 and 50mm f/2 Summicron (Rigid) and while I search for an

appropriate Leica lens shade I decided to determine if one of my Nikon

shades might do. I purchased a 39-46 and 46-52 step-up rings and took

a series of shots ( f/2 and f/16 and infinity and close focus) with a

HN-1, HN-2 and HN-3. Picked up the film today and no vignetting

evident. Of course, I suppose it borders on the heretical to put a

Nikon shade on a Leica. It's only temporary -- I promise.

[icuneko]

Nikon lens shade (or hood) on a Leica? You'll NEVER get the glow now!

What a pity...

[al_kaplan1]

The Leica shades were mostly "vented" from the mid 1960's on so they didn't block much of the image in the viewfinder. Hey, I use an 85mm f/2 Nikkor in Leica thread mount on my Leicas. It came with a series VII Tiffen shade attached to the lens via a Canon 48mm series VII adapter. If it works it works! Nobody is going to shoot you.

[seanmoran]

I dare hardly confess this, but ...

 

For my rigid summicron, I bought two E39 Leitz filters on eBay, smashed and removed the glass and painted the inside of the mounts matt black. Works fine.

 

Sean.

[jl-smith]

I would agree with the smash-glass-out-of-filter approach -- though you can select 39 mm filters cheaper than Leica's, however, and sand-off/paint the outside. Stacked empty filters give you a variable (e.g., tailored) depth, since the majority of the rings stay together, you are not worried about quality of materials, except maybe on the front and back, if you use several.

 

What is more, on the odd-front-sized lenses, a step-up ring to a readily available filter size as the first ring, gives you that better-access-to-filters-and-caps as well, and may be the best option on 50's and shorter lenses, to get a little larger hood diameter. (although the Leica hood for the current 50/2.8 is nice, and is not larger in diameter than 39mm, and about 2 filter rings in depth (they vary). A f2 or f1.4 lens might vignette a tiny bit with this, I suppose)

 

(My Canon 85 with 48mm threads, has a 48-49 step-up, then 3 empty filter rings, all painted silver-ish, as its hood).

 

The easier ability to cap a filter ring on front is a prime advantage here, over usual hoods. I think.

[jan_brittenson]

The standard articulated bioclamps work pretty well too, and just about all of us come with two of them by default. Usually got one on hand, so to speak.

[astral]

I use a heck of a lot of slr lenses from 20 to 300mm alongside some Leica gear. I find that some manufacturers make rather generous allowances for angle of view so that vignetting is not a problem with filters (though some don?t!) But this often results in shallow hoods that don't give the optimal shading or vignetting control that I may want.

 

My solution is to use any suitable second-hand hood, often via a step-up ring, often giving me better proportioned and more effective hoods for certain applications. To check for vignetting I use a piece of ground glass at the film gate. This often shows that a hood for, say, a much longer lens will give far better shading than a more conventionally sized hood, even with filters attached. I then simply label the hoods for each of the lenses they suit. Step-up rings allow me to use the same hood for a number of different lenses, etc, saving space in the holdall.

 

The ?down-side? is that some hoods look enormous on some lenses: the ?up-side? is that I rarely get flare or ghosting in tricky situations - and I save money.

 

Where cheap hoods shout out their humble origins I may ink-out the engravings/printing using a black marker pen, or may even ink-in the markings, in red or blue, to make the hood look more classy! Automotive 'black crackle' or silver spray paint jobs (on metal hoods) look great too, and baking the paint job in an oven for a while hardens the paint nicely. Plastic hoods can easily be cut down to length if needed, and can clean-up well with metal polish. Such d-i-y jobs cost pennies, take about 10 minutes and look like $50 accessories (for those who think that's important!).

 

Money saved (??$$) over brand-named dedicated hoods goes on film or in the air-fare money-box.

 

Alan Clayton

Nottingham. England