[noahpurdy]

There is NO REASON not to use a hood.

For what it's worth my PH-RBH just sacrificed it's life for my DA* 55. Without it that lens would've surely been toast.

[DAZ]

Taken with a FA77. The top with a hood and the bottom without. Although it could be argued that the FA77 is not the absolute best lens you can get it would be hard to argue it is a bad lens. As you can see without the hood has less contrast and with the contrast is some details.

This is taken into the sun but with the sun just out side the frame. Not all the veil flare is from the sun directly. There is a light colored building just to the right of frame and the sun off the road. The hood can help with the sun and the building but not the road. Only the coatings on the lens (this is the reasons for the coatings) can help with flare in the frame but everything has its limits.

All the light coming into the lens adds to veil flare although at some point it is to small to be significant. As you can't always control the light that is in frame any light that is out of frame that you can control with something like a hood probably should be used. As it is almost impossible for even experienced photographers to know when veal flare will be significant most of them just use a hood all the time if they can.

DAZ