Little things, mean a lot!

Most lens manufacturers now supply a hood with each new lens which is nice, but, the problem is that most of those hoods bayonet on!  So what’s wrong with that?  Actually nothing except if you use a polarizer you have to remove the hood to adjust the polarizer and then re-install the hood and take the chance of knocking the polarizer out of position. Frankly it’s a hassle.  Then there are the hoods that do not bayonet on securely, or are hard to align!  So what to do?

Thankfully, my preferred kind of hood, metal screw in, are now readily available from Amazon to fit almost any lens.  I know what you’re thinking because I was thinking the same thing, how do you know if it will work, and not vignette? Here are a few suggestions:

(1)  Go onto Amazon and search for Screw In Lens Hood 62mm*(*or whatever size you need).  This will bring ups a large variety of hood s in that size!

2.  Compare the hoods shown to the one supplied with your lens. When you find something you believe will work, that appears about the same depth,  ( distance from the front of the hood back to the threads)  Order that hood!  There are a lot of different kinds, and I will address that in a following point!  What if it doesn’t work? Amazon is great about returns!

3.  How do you know if it works?  First I try not to use the scalloped (flower pedal design) hoods because if you turn them with the polarizer they have different wings on the top and bottom, but when turned can vignette!  My personal preference is the round hoods.  Once you get a hood and screw it into your polarizer, and polarizer is already screwed into the lens, go outside and shoot the blue sky at f 16.  If the corners are dark, you have vignetting.  For wide angles in the 28mm range to normal lens in the 50mm range I like the Vented type lens hood below.  I have the same lens hood, in the appropriate size, on my 35mm, & 50mm equivalent lenses.

(4.)  For longer lenses 85mm and longer you need deeper hoods and this is a little harder, because you want the hood deep enough to shade the front of the lens well, but not long enough to vignette!  I had a special problem with my Fuji 60mm Macro lens.  It had a gigantic bayonet on hood and I wanted something much smaller, but it had a thread size of 39mm!!!  I was sure I could never find a hood that would work, but Amazon is amazing I found the hood below which is a perfect fit and much more compact yet deep enough!  * Note this time when I searched i did not see the same hood in black, but I’m sure it will come back in stock, but this is the same lens hood!

Another example was the 56mm f 1.2 lens from Fuji had a 62mm thread and is the equivalent of a 85mm lens (angle of view).  I knew Nikon made a great hood for their 85mm f 1.8 and I had a couple of them, sure enough it fit perfectly, and did not vignette!  The Nikon HN-23 is almost $90.!!!  but a company named Vello makes the identical, and I mean identical,  hood for far, far less, check it out below!  I know, I bought one!!!

O.K., you may be asking is it really worth all this trouble???!!!  For most folks, probably not, but if you feel the tactile aspect of photography, everything working smoothly and reliably, and that this speeds up the process, and if you think this will add up to making better images???  Then you have your answer to the question!

Blessings,

the pilgrim