Lens Hoods
 

I've been trying to buy a hood for my 58 mm Canon 70-300 lens locally for several months and the local store hasn't had any success ordering one for me (they are rather poor at what ehy do).
Finally yesterday the store owner called to say that she had some of the collapsible rubber style in stock. I wanted a hard plastic hood, preferably in the "flower' shaped style. I can't find anything in my books on the pros and cons of the different lens hoods. Can anyone help with some advice on the subject or perhaps a reference to where I can find information? I used to use the rubber hoods on my 35 mm lenses but I have never seen one used on a dSLR. I wonder why not. Are they not as good? I doubt if they protect the lens as well as the rigid hoods.
I know that amazon.com has the hoods in stock but that means a cross border purchase that can involve duty etc and can get to be a bit of a nuisence. I'll probably go that route depending on what comments I get to this thread.

Dan,

The primary job of a hood is to shield the front element from stray light that may otherwise cause flaring, internal reflections and ghost images. As long as the hood achieves this, I can't really see what difference the material makes. I don't usually use hoods, not even on my bigger lenses. If I've needed to stop flare or other effects I usually get my wife to stand in an appropriate place and block the light. Failing this, I've improvised "hoods" from bits of paper and card that I happen to have on me.

Duncan

Dan,

IMO for zooms the petal style is probably the best option as they give greater flare protection at the top and bottom. That is not to say that a rubber hood will have no benefit. I use a round rubber hood on my 50mm and 55mm micro lens, and a round metal hood on my 28 mm lens, and my 28-105 and 80-200 have flared round hoods. So the ' petal style ' is not an absolute essential.

If you look at a rubber hood make sure that it does not give vignetting at the 70mm end of your zoom. Easily checked in the shop. I have passed on a collapsible rubber style to Foxy Bob and its shape would certainly have satisfied me if I had your lens. In that case I would only have extended it in rare occasions where flare may be a problem at the 200-300mm end, otherwise leaving it in the collapsed position.

Don ( lens hoods in all shapes & styles ) :)

I thought the flower type was for wide angle lenses so as to avoid vignetting. For a telephoto a normal hood should be fine and the rubber hoods can be squashed flat for easy storage and they are cheap. I have an old Hoya rubber hood which does fine and the very deep plastic hood which came with my Canon 70-300 DO IS lens. I use the ''proper'' hood with this lens as its supposed to be very susceptible to flare with bright sources of light just outside the field of view but I have not suffered this yet. I would be happy with the rubbber hood.

I take the view that a lens hood both reduces the chance of flare and protects the lens. I would rather ding the hood than the front lens element.

There are third party metal lens hoods available from Speed Graphic and others, though they might not be the right length. As most lens hoods are designed for a 35mm frame, on a crop frame DSLR you can get away with a longer hood than the recommended one.

What really annoys me is that many Nikon lenses come without the hood, and they cost a small fortune.

The great advantage of screw in over bayonet type. I would guess Canon bayonet hoods are also pretty pricy.

The most versatile hood I have, but also the least practical is a bellows type. :D

Don

Yep Canon bayonet are expensive and with a lot of their lenses they are extras. The Hoya rubber lens is screw type and screws into the skylight/UV filter so no probs there unless you don't like leaving a filter on all the time.

The shop owners attitude and inability to get me a plastic hood after my 2 - 3 month wait annoyed me enough that I won't shop there anymore. Unfortunately she has the only shop in the province that even pretends to be a camera store so now I'll be ordering on line and I'll try for the petal type hood. The reason I'm not keen on the rubber style is that I don't think they give as much protection.