A question about lens hood

hi,

Recently I bought an old camera system on Ebay. There is a lens hood
in this lot which has the text: "WIDEANGLE HOOD". I have not used a
hood on a lens before. I always thought a hood is only used on tele
lenses. When the lens has such a text on it, shall it only be used on
wideangle lenses? I am travelling to Mallorca, Spain and I suppose
sunshine acan ba aproblem. can this hood help in any way?

regards,

Mojtaba

the email address is fake please don't use it.

Mojtaba wrote:
hi,

Recently I bought an old camera system on Ebay. There is a lens hood
in this lot which has the text: "WIDEANGLE HOOD". I have not used a
hood on a lens before. I always thought a hood is only used on tele
lenses. When the lens has such a text on it, shall it only be used on
wideangle lenses? I am travelling to Mallorca, Spain and I suppose
sunshine acan ba aproblem. can this hood help in any way?


Different lenses need different hoods. That's basically it if you want the
best results. Now you can get away with using a wider hood on a longer lens
but the opposite will vignette cutting off the corners. Long lenses the
image comes in at less of an angle to the lens. Short lenses [wide angle]
the image comes it at more of an angle. So for a hood to work it needs to
not cut off the image.

I hope that makes sense.

Nick

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 00:52:15 +0200, Mojtaba wrote:

hi,

Recently I bought an old camera system on Ebay. There is a lens hood
in this lot which has the text: "WIDEANGLE HOOD". I have not used a
hood on a lens before. I always thought a hood is only used on tele
lenses. When the lens has such a text on it, shall it only be used on
wideangle lenses? I am travelling to Mallorca, Spain and I suppose
sunshine acan ba aproblem. can this hood help in any way?

If the sun or other bright light shines directly into the lens, it
will light up dust specks and also the inside walls and other
structures of the lens. Some of this reflected light will end up on
the film and reduce contrast.

You can avoid almost all of this by shading the lens using your hand
or other object so that the bright light does not shine into the front
element. Of course a lens shade is designed for this purpose. Always
use a lens shade if you have one. It will improve the contrast,
especially in the shadow areas.

The lens shade should be designed for the lens you are using. If you
try to use a normal shade on a wide angle lens, the shade will produce
dark corners. The other way is not so bad - a wide angle shade on a
normal lens - but some light might sneak around the shade.

Wide angle lenses are quite susceptible to flare caused by stray
light. Therefore you should always use a shade for wide angle lenses.

By the way, a lens shade can protect the front of the lens by keeping
fingers away, and shielding it from rain, etc. And that is another
reason for using a lens shade.

N.

Dear Nick and Nordon,

Thanks a lot for your good information.

best regards,

Mojtaba

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004 00:52:15 +0200, Mojtaba wrote:

hi,

Recently I bought an old camera system on Ebay. There is a lens hood
in this lot which has the text: "WIDEANGLE HOOD". I have not used a
hood on a lens before. I always thought a hood is only used on tele
lenses. When the lens has such a text on it, shall it only be used on
wideangle lenses? I am travelling to Mallorca, Spain and I suppose
sunshine acan ba aproblem. can this hood help in any way?

regards,

Mojtaba

the email address is fake please don't use it.

A lens hood is used to cut down on unwanted lens flare. It doesn't
matter whether it's a wide angle, standard or telephoto lens. Of
course it DOES matter as to which one of these lenses it was designed
for.

If you use a hood for a wide angle on a telephoto lens, you won't be
blocking the maximum amount of light that can cause flare, and
conversely if you use a hood designed for telephoto on a wide angle,
you will have noticable black "edges" (or worse) in you photo. This
is why most manufacturers of lenses make a line of hoods specifically
matched to each lens they make.

Mojtaba wrote:

hi,

Recently I bought an old camera system on Ebay. There is a lens hood
in this lot which has the text: "WIDEANGLE HOOD". I have not used a
hood on a lens before. I always thought a hood is only used on tele
lenses. When the lens has such a text on it, shall it only be used on
wideangle lenses? I am travelling to Mallorca, Spain and I suppose
sunshine acan ba aproblem. can this hood help in any way?


Wide angle lenses can benefit from hoods too, but due to their
wide angle of coverage the hoods get shorter/wider and are
somtimes cut in a pattern to optimize their coverage while
eliminating the vignetting they might cause. With a wide angle
(hood or no hood) one must take more care than with a tele to
avoid direct light from getting on the lens causing flare,
ghosting and loss of contrast.

A hood for a wider lens might fit on a longer lens, but will less
effective than the proper hood; a hood for a longer lens might
fit on a shorter lens, but will likely (certainly) cause vignetting.

--
--e-meil: there's no such thing as a FreeLunch.--