Eddie Lagos |
Lens Hood: How Important Is It? What is the main purpose of a lens hood?
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John Rhodes |
Eddie, the main purpose of the hood to to reduce the effect of flare - when the sun, or other strong light source is allowed to strike the lens. A secondary purpose, but one I find very important, is to protect the front glass from damage. It's better to bump the inexpensive hood into something than the expensive glass.
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Tony Sweet |
Well, there are exactly two schools of thought on lens hoods: 1. A must have for the aforementioned, and accurate, reasons, OR I'm of the second school, not using lens hoods, in general. What does "in general" mean? In regards to wide angle lens hoods, I'll just use a hat or my hand to block flare. How can I tell if there is flare? But, using longer lenses with longer lens hoods, I'll definitely use a lens hood to block rain, blowing snow, blowing sand from hitting the front of the lens. I have a separate bag with accessories, like lens hoods, but the only one that I feel I need is the hood for my 70-200mm. Other professionals wouldn't be caught dead without using lens hoods. As far as protecting the lens against droppage, that actually is a valid point. I've become very careful when carrying lenses around to avoid dropping or hitting the lens on anything. I mostly avoid that by putting all lenses away when changing locations. That is easier for a nature photographer to do than for a sports or people photographer. Bottom line: As with all things in photography, personal work style and preferences are the bottom line. As stated earlier, there are two schools of thought, here. Which one are you?
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