Veteran Member Registered: February, 2008 Location: Waterloo, Ontario Posts: 4,461 1 user found this helpful | Review Date: October 3, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $25.00
| Rating: 9 |
Pros: | Well made, looks cool and does its job reducing flare and protecting the lens | Cons: | Some issues when used with a circular polarizer | | The primary use for a lens hood is to prevent light from hitting the front lens element from the sides - reducing contrast and creating flare. Pictures taken with a lens hood installed can have richer colours, deeper saturation.
A secondary use for a lens hood is to protect the lens. The damage prevented can range from a finger smudges on the front element (a minor inconvenience) to a broken front element (possibly a major expense - and lost pictures). Accidental touches and scratches to the front element are reduced simply because the glass is difficult to reach. Some impact protection is also gained from having a sacrificial part taking the blow.
I purchased the Pentax PH-S49 square hood some time ago for use on my M 50/1.4. The same hood will fit the A 50/1.4 lens. It is made of sturdy plastic and is the clip-on type. It fits firmly in place and it would take a pretty good jolt to knock it off. It has performed well in its flare reduction and protection role. As this hood was designed specifically for the M 50/1.4 and M 50/1.7 lenses. It was also work on the A 50/1.4 and A 50/1.7 lenses which share the same optical design.
You can use this hood in conjunction with a circular polarizer. It can be a little awkward however. The hood will turn with the polarizer if you are not careful and might result in some vignetting. This is the only potential problem I can see with this hood.
In theory the square hood should do a better job of shading then a circular hood, since it can "crop" extraneous light much closer to the edge of the frame without starting to vignette the corners. The round hood will have "gaps" in its protection along the straight sides of the picture. This may or may not be true but if there is an advantage to be had from have a square hood specially built for a lens I want it. It’s true rubber hoods can be found for quite a bit less but to my mind the square hood not only works better it just looks a lot better.
As I recall I believe I paid $25.00 for it as a new old stock purchase on EBAY. They seem to be pretty rare on the used market. I would recommend this hood to those who want the best in flare reduction for their M or A 50/1.4 or those who just want a really cool looking hood. You know who you are.
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Veteran Member Registered: May, 2010 Location: Hong Kong / Irvine, CA Posts: 636 | Review Date: January 18, 2013 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | easy | Cons: | Cannot reverse store | | I got this with one clip broken
Works very good and I like the design.
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New Member Registered: July, 2013 Posts: 2 | Review Date: April 15, 2018 | Not Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 5 |
Pros: | Effective, lightweight | Cons: | Terrible clip on system | | This is a nice hood - too bad Pentax gave it a lousy clip on system. I can't count how many times the spring loaded clips came apart. Also, the clip system doesn't hold the hood tightly enough, so the slightest nudge skews the hood out of alignment; this is problematic because this is a rectangular hood and has to be aligned in a precise way. Finally, I pulled the clips off and epoxied the hood to a step up ring, converting it from clip-on to screw on. Problem solved.
If you're looking for a hood for this application, do yourself a favor and find a nice, screw on metal hood instead.
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