Are you using the lens hood regularly?

[mendel_leisk]

<p>I'm not a Nikon user, but anyway:</p>

<p>I rarely if ever use my hoods, and most of my lens came with hoods. I know it is advantageous, some shots more than others, but I'd rather get the shot than miss it because I was unreversing the hood, or left the kit at home because of the hoods, and so on.</p>

<p>A few observations:</p>

<p>1. On many shots a hood makes no difference.</p>

<p>2. Some lens flare royally, with or without their hoods. Others are more-or-less impervious to flare, again with or without their hoods.</p>

<p>3. Hoods are a pita to use in conjection with circular polarizers.</p>

<p>4. They may be the make/break regarding camera bag fit.</p>

<p>5. In a pinch, your hand can shield fairly effectively.</p>

<p>BTW, this subject, and UV-filter-or-not-UV-filter, are equally contentious: you'll find various polarized opinion, no one will switch sides, everyone has good arguments, in short: it's really your call.</p>

[jon_porter2]

<p>I use hoods instead of front lens caps. I store lenses face down in my bags, so the hood protects the front element. That way I can quickly change lenses without the annoying ritual of snapping lens caps on and off, then dropping or misplacing them.</p>

[phil_burt]

<p>Stefan, I cannot think the last time my hood was off while shooting. I have banged the lens a few times and nothing bad has ever happened. I also believe that if the manufacture didn't think you would need or want one they sure wouldn't spend the money on giving you one with the lens.<br>

phil b<br>

benton, ky</p>

<p> </p>

[emiliogtz]

<p>More like all of the time.</p>

[dan_south]

<p>I use lens hoods especially in crowded places to keep people from bumping into the front element.</p>

[richard_mudd]

<p>Ok I will admit I only use it so I look professional :)</p>

[manuel barrera houston,]

<p>never leave home without it, for all the reasons above</p>

[bj_larsson]

<p>I use my lens hood most of the time. Works great in rain to keep spots off the front of the lens. Allows me to tape a bag to the hood to protect the rest of the camera from rain. Protects the lens if I slip or run it into something ...</p>

<p>The sun thing is minor IMO. </p>

<p>One problem is using a step up ring to standardize on filters. Example, I use a 17-50 f2.8 Tamron with a step up to 72mm filter (I standardized on 72 some time ago). That means if I'm using my polarizer I can't also use the hood.</p>

[Tom Wiggins Photography]

<p>I use a hood on all my lens, along with a ND filter, it's for protection!</p>

[ifti]

<p>I always do. For the prevention of glare and protection of my lens. One of my lens has built in hood (Nikkor 135 AF-DC) that you pull out or push in. </p>

[jason_inskeep]

<p>I use the lens hoods on my canon gear all the time, some times the lens hood isn't even enough and i end up using my hand or my hat or something to keep the lens flare down. I have noticed that it does make a huge difference in some of the pictures that i take with my pentax k1000, I have no hoods for any of those lenses and shading the lens with my hand or a hat helps the contrast quite a bit in some situations. Mainly when the sun is at any angle that can bounce around in the lens.</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>Lens hoods will cause vignetting in some cases when using on camera flash. But they do provide good protection for normal use.</p>

[gregcoad]

<p>Me too.</p>

<p>The lens hood on my 24-70 f/2.8L is covered in nicks and scratches but the lens itself looks as good as the day I pulled it out of the box. Twice in the past month I have slipped on rocks while hiking with my 1Ds around my neck with the 24-70 mounted (my walk around lens) and both times the front of the lens would have been severely damaged were it not for the hood. Not only does it protect things from striking the front element but provides a "shock absorber" when the front of the camera comes down hard and fast as in a slip and fall type incident.</p>

<p>I remember a pro photographer that came to photograph my house a while ago showed me his 24-70. The front filter threads were "less than round". He told me about how the camera was dropped onto a concrete floor and how he had used a pair of lineman pliers to "more or less" straighten out the filter threads. Needless to say the filter threads no longer served their purpose and to have the lens properly repaired would have been quite costly. Never would have happened if the hood had been on the lens.<br>

<br />A replacement EW-83F hood is about $50. To repair the front element of the lens would be a minimum of $350.</p>

<p> </p>

[gregcoad]

<p>Haha. Just realized this is a Nikon thread and I go rambling about a Canon lens. The point is still the same though.</p>

 

[st.schwarzer]

<p>Wow, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I was a little bit stunned this morning seeing 38 responses! Hm, the protection factor is surely relevant, although over these last 10 years or so it never happened to me that a lens hood would have been useful for it, as nothing happened to my lenses. But ok, who knows what tomorrow will be?</p>

<p>I wonder what kind of bags you guys must use to carry your equipment. I have a <a href="http://products.lowepro.com/product/Off-Trail-2,1981,7.htm">Lowepro Offtrail 2</a> (for two separate lenses alike 70-200/2.8 plus body/lens) and this is already quite heavy. And the lens hoods don't go into the side bags. So, I would need to change bags (larger backpack) to be able to carry the lens hoods with me. And, as some of you are saying, you're not even taking the lens hood off when storing them in the bag, it'll really take lots of space.</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks a lot for the comments, I will keep this in mind next time I am traveling/shooting (which is tomorrow)... :-)</p>

[alvinyap]

<p>My lens hood has saved my wallet many times. One incident I remember particularly was when I was frolicking up the blue mountains, and I slipped on one of the trails. d200 + 16-85 went lens first into the rock. Hood cracked, but lens seemed no worst for the wear.</p>

<p>The only time I remove/retract my hoods is when I'm shooting through fencing and have to stuff my lens up against the wire.</p>

<p>Also, keeps flare away. Use you hood :)<br>

<br />Regards,<br>

Alvin</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Here is an image of my damaged HB-29 hood (left) for the 70-200mm/f2.8 AF-S VR version1 and the replacement one (right) I got. See the big chunk missing from the damaged hood. Hopefully it'll help remind everybody it is important to have the hood on.</p>

<p>A few days ago, we went to the Point Reyes National Seashore. It was extremely foggy and after hiking for an hour, I had dew drops forming on my glasses and my hairline. I was wondering why my hair was all wet. However, I had the lens hood on my 200-400; the hood protected the lens and the front element remained mostly dry during the hike. See the elk image I captured during that hike on our Wednesday image thread: <a href="http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00X/00XF7w-278159584.jpg">http://static.photo.net/attachments/bboard/00X/00XF7w-278159584.jpg</a><br />Sometimes I shoot surfing and there is a lot of sea water mist in the air. The hood also protects my front element from the salty mist, but my lens barrel and camera body typically get salty after a day of shooting.</p><div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>As to the vignetting question: a properly designed hood custom made for a particular lens and mounted correctly should have absolutely no impact on lens vignetting.</p>

<p>We're really talking about two kinds of vignetting here - first, the physical vignetting that comes from a non-custom hood or too many filters stacked up, etc. This is "mechanical" vignetting.</p>

<p>The second kind of vignetting is that caused by light fall-off because of the angle of light entering the lens or "optical" vignetting.</p>

<p>For more discussion, see Wikipedia on vignetting (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignetting">link</a>)</p>

[eddevlam]

<p>I never use lens hoods. I think they are very ugly and with the hood on my camera's take to much space in the bag. I don't use lens caps either anymore. They are always inconvenient. Sometimes I protect the front with a filter. It works fine for me.</p>

[jay_poel]

<p>I always use the lens hoods mainly for protection. Nikon's hoods so easily reverse for storage that it only makes sense to use them.</p>

<p>I had my 24-70mm f/2.8 lens for less than a week and my 6 year old son came up on his bicycle to "scare" me and when he cranked the handle bars at the last second they caught the hood - being a kid and dropping his bike all the time left the metal of the bars exposed where the end of the grips had torn off. It left a little mark on the hood that is barely noticable but I think it would have been a lot worse if the hood was off and it caught the front element.</p>

[philip_tam]

<p>I always carry the hoods with me, but I usually store them reversed. I only attach the hood when I think that I might have flare issues, or I'm walking through crowded streets or an area where the lens might be banged around.</p>

<p>I usually use it for my wide angle lens though, because it has that bubbly extruding front element that just invites dings.</p>

<p>I use step up rings for 77mm filters, so there's often a tradeoff of not being able to use hoods.</p>

[teneson]

<p>I hardly ever use a lens hood. The coatings on modern lenses are amazing at keeping flare down to a minimum. I often use flare as a sort of atmospheric effect on my photos. And a lot of times, I use my hand to shield the lens.</p>

[evilsivan]

<p>I only take it off when I can't get things to fit in the camera bag. Its is good for physically protecting the front from impact and, say, mist or dust. And of course it helps with flare.</p>

[pete_s.]

<p>I choose to keep the hoods on permanently. Since doing that I stopped using UV filters and front lens caps. But if there is risk of getting water spray or anything like that on the lens I try to remember to put on a UV filter.</p>

<p>I have a couple of lenses with 67 and 72mm filter threads and I use step up rings to 77mm on those. Some petal hoods doesn't fit with the step up ring so I put a 77mm screw-on hood on the filter instead. When using polarizing filters the screw-on hood works OK as I can change polarization by spinning the hood.</p>

<p>I also have a couple of lenses with retractable hoods and usually have screw-on hoods on them as well.</p>

<p>I have one or two zoom lenses where the petal hoods are flimsy. They still work okay and doesn't get dislocated but if they would I would put some black gaffa tape on them in an instant. Actually I tape a lot of stuff on cameras and other stuff like pocketwizards where settings can be changed by mistake. Any tape residue can be safely and easily removed with isopropanol.</p>

<p>My only problem is that I actually have a more lenses than hoods. Especially older metal hoods for ai/ais lenses.</p>

[james_kennedy9]

<p>If I have the hood for the lens, I use it. I buy mostly used equipment, and some hoods are hard to find. If necessary, I will use one of those generic hoods where the hood is made of rubber-like material and can be folded back. Taking a hint from Bert Keppler's old but great book on SLRs (back when the Nikon F was new), I use plastic jar covers with elastic aound the rim to put over the hood while the lens is on the camera. Easy to get on and off.</p>