Lens hoods. Do you use them?

monopix

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Just wondered what people's thoughts were on lens hoods. I like to use them but, as I have discovered, they can limit the lens coverage and introduce vignetting if you use more extreme movements.
 
I've gone with camera manufacturer compendiums. They are definitely not what you would call compact but they offer me the versatility I'm after. They also don't have to cost a lot if you're not in a rush.
 
Hoods are very handy for keeping rain off the lens.
It's easy enough to use the dark slide to shade the front element from direct sunlight, and it's always in your hand, exactly when you need it. Takes up no space at all in the bag.
 
Generally I don't. I just use the darkslide to shade the lens when required, the caveat being this is with entirely multicoated lenses. I do have a rubber hood I keep in my more lightweight kit though, primarily for a specific single coated lens with a lot of dust and repaired fungus damage.

In the past I came into possession of the fancy Lee bellows hood for their 100mm filter system, but I got rid of it once it became apparent that to actually use it methodically it in a way that gains maximum shading without vignetting, by checking at shooting aperture on the ground glass actually is a bit of a pain in the arse, for no real benefit most of the time, and it was just one extra thing to carry and faff about with.

The best compendium hood I ever had was the one designed for the old Oschwald-era Arcas, it had bellows and four sliding blinds for each edge of the frame, but would take some DIY skills to actually rig it up on anything other than that vintage of Arca cameras.
 
Haha, likewise Dave, i normally use the removed darkslide as a shade.

I have compendium shades for both my Linhof's, but they gather dust at home. The Lee compendium is a waste of time.

Most often used hood is an old rubber hood that i've had for years.

Mike
 
Thanks for the comments.

I've always preferred metal lens hoods on smaller formats, both for their intended purpose and for physical protection of the lens, so have added them to my LF lenses without thinking about it too much. Most of the time I'm unlikley to use sufficient movements for it to be a problem but while 'experimenting' the other day I did get some vignetting which made me wonder if I should use an alternative.

I'm not keen on waving the darkslide around. I always think I'm going to get it into the shot. OK with longer lenses maybe but I like wide angles. The bellows hoods seem like a faff to me though I've never tried one. Maybe a rubber hood is the answer as it's easliy squished down if it gets in the way. They would also make it easier to pack the lenses. Sounds like a plan.
 
I use a lens hood a lot on smaller formats and cameras with fixed lenses because it is easy. No movements to worry about, and the extra step is nothing much.

I do have an SRB compendium (uses a 100mm filter mount), that I carry with my filters. This set goes with the view camera - if I need/am motivated to use a hood enough this will do pretty much any lens or movement. Otherwise, I use the dark slide or my hat.

I used to use the solid, stackable, hood parts for the Cokin filter system. They worked pretty well - easy to stack for longer lenses and could be slid to cope with basic movements. I mostly use screw-in filters, so the filter holder was not used for filters.

I do feel I ought to put in more effort - the less non-image forming light going inside the camera ought to be a good thing? :cool:
 
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