About Lens Hoods IMPORTANT!

I have often said that i hate my FA50mm F1.4, sure its a sharp lens at F4.0, some say even at F2.8 but when i want the speed the sharpness
just isn't there, in fact the only fast lens i have that doesn't really suffer a lot from low sharpness wide open is my FA35mm F2.0...

In the case of the FA50, its all about low contrast, same goes for the F50 F1.7 and Sigma 24mm F1.8... and a little bit on the FA77mm F1.8 Ltd...
I know a hood is important for getting rid of stray unwanted light, but you really never no how important it is until you have a bad case of low
contrast for a given lens and you try a lens hood on it. in a personal review of the Sigma 24mm F1.8 someone wrote online they made a really
interesting point, The film (FF) lenses come with a hood that blocks stray light for the FOV related to full frame, however on a crop sensor the
hood needs to be 1.5 times longer to get the greatest benefit, he said he used his Sigma 70-200 F2.8 hood on his 24mm F1.8 without vignetting
and with far better contrast... the other thing we all should understand is that zoom lenses hoods are only good for the widest FOV...

with this in mind i picked up a lens hood off ebay said to be good for 37-90mm ore something like that, its a 49mm thread and its about 37mm
long and 60mm in diameter (it came with a 58mm lens hood)... the hood is longer then the built in hood of the 77Ltd too by about 1.3 times.

here are some of my conclusive test to confirm how much a lens hood helps

Testing back light glare 50mm F1.4 @ F1.4, F2.0, F2.8
what the test looked like


100% crops description written on photo

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

You can clearly see a marked improvement in contrast and overall sharpness

Now here is one test for the 77mm F1.8 at F1.8, no hood, built in hood, new hood

what the test looked like


100% crops

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

Look at the contrast in the text and the effect of purple ringing on the black dots

I hope this is clear for everyone now that the right lens hood is rather quite important to improve lens performance especially on fast
primes... now the next thing i have to look for is a larger hood to fit my 24mm F1.8

[Gooshin]

i use a lenshood designed for a film takumar 135mm on my FA43

until you get vignetting, there is no such thing as too much hood!

you also get slightly more accurate exposure.

[Rense]

Amazing! Never thought that the length of a hood is so important. Have to go shopping...

[smigol]

Wow! I've been seeing this PF and fuzzy fringe with my own setup and have used the stock hood for it. I'm thinking about making an extension for the hood with some construction paper to see what I can find with the shots I try.

I like doing macro with my setup, so extending the hood might be good, but lighting would be its own challenge.

[thazooo]

Wonderful! Very nice work, you've got me measuring all my hoods.

[RBellavance]

Wow, I never would have thought the difference would be that great. Thanks !

However, I would like to comment on this:

Originally Posted by MightyMike

the other thing we all should understand is that zoom lenses hoods are only good for the widest FOV...

That certainly is true for most lenses. However I was thinking about this very thing last week, and figured out that "reverse-zooming" lenses with a fixed hood are a great solution to this. Two examples I know of are the Nikkor 17-55/2.8 and Canon 24-70/2.8L: these zooms are longest (or thereabouts) at their "wide end", shortest at their "tele end", and the hood is stationary throughout.

I have never seem the DA16-45 or DA*16-50, so I don't know if their hood is designed the same way.

[Lowell Goudge]

I have often commented that lens manufacturers should offer alternate hoods for ASP-C sensors.

there are sites that will allow you to custom design hoods to fit your sensor.

check the accessories forum.

[X Man]

Thank you Sir, great lesson here! Fascinating!

[mithrandir]

Mike, Thanks for taking the time to check this out. An extra thanks for sharing the results.

[MightyMike]

Originally Posted by RBellavance

Wow, I never would have thought the difference would be that great. Thanks !

However, I would like to comment on this:

That certainly is true for most lenses. However I was thinking about this very thing last week, and figured out that "reverse-zooming" lenses with a fixed hood are a great solution to this. Two examples I know of are the Nikkor 17-55/2.8 and Canon 24-70/2.8L: these zooms are longest (or thereabouts) at their "wide end", shortest at their "tele end", and the hood is stationary throughout.

I have never seem the DA16-45 or DA*16-50, so I don't know if their hood is designed the same way.

Great point RBellavance, also the Nikon 14-24mm F2.8 has a stationary hood

[Nowhere Matt]

Another reason to come around this forum. It's full of kooks. And all kinds of kooks.
Very interesting experiment and very well demonstrated. I am sure many find it useful and we shall soon see the Marketplace flooded with cast away lens hoods.

[Vylen]

Originally Posted by Nowhere Matt

Another reason to come around this forum. It's full of kooks. And all kinds of kooks.
Very interesting experiment and very well demonstrated. I am sure many find it useful and we shall soon see the Marketplace flooded with cast away lens hoods.

i think it'd be a bit silly to dispose of your lens hoods... just gaffer some cardboard onto your existing one, spray paint it black, and you're done :P

[MightyMike]

Originally Posted by Vylen

i think it'd be a bit silly to dispose of your lens hoods... just gaffer some cardboard onto your existing one, spray paint it black, and you're done :P

I agree, there is no point it getting rid of your current hoods, they may be adequate in the cases of DA primes or they may be useful on other lenses, they can also be what you transform into a longer hood... and the reality is that this seems to affect the lenses with bad contrast the most, many lenses are pretty decent with the hood provided

[kerrowdown]

First we all had LBA then CBA, now we got HBA to add to our list of ways to spend money.

I always use hoods on all lenses, instead of filters for both protection and stray light, but until now I never would have considered such an increase in contrast due to just a hood.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Canada_Rockies]

Thanks for the information! Very well presented.