Basic lens hood question and placing camera in camera bag? Still a newbie, and my first lens has arrived. (just the 55-200 lens) but it came with a camera hood? I did a search on...

AndyCE Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Still a newbie, and my first lens has arrived. (just the 55-200 lens) but it came with a camera hood? I did a search on camera hoods and well it was some what confusing! Some say it protects the lens, others say that isn't true? I've read the pamplet that came with the lens and it explaines vignetting, which happens most using the built in flash? So many questions!
Lastly, what is the proper way to place your camera in your camera bag? Do you seperate your camera from the lens? If not do you place the body down?
Thanks!
Andy

RAK Loc: Concord Ca

Lens hood goes onto your lens backwards, lens down into your bag. Make sure you put lens cap on first. Keep lens attached to camera body. Hood will protect lens but so will care of your equipment. As you become more active with you camera you will develop a sense of how to handle your equipment. Good luck and shoot often.

Michael O' Loc: Midwest right now

RAK wrote:

Lens hood goes onto your lens backwards, lens down into your bag. Make sure you put lens cap on first. Keep lens attached to camera body. Hood will protect lens but so will care of your equipment. As you become more active with you camera you will develop a sense of how to handle your equipment. Good luck and shoot often.

Exactly.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

Just what RAK said. The lens hood does protect your lens, so use it. It saved one of my lenses.

mechengvic Loc: SoCalo

I dropped a lens with no hood on it and the glass shattered... I dropped a lens with a lens hood on it and the lens hood bent and absorbed the fall. The lens and hood were both ok. Does it prove anything? Not really. Does it make you think that a hood might be cheap insurance? You better believe it.

Lens hoods are good to use outside or inside where there are bright directional lights. They are designed to help block light hitting your lens from the side, which will cause flare in your images. You should take the lens hood off if your're going to use a camera mounted flash, it can cause a shadow.

Using a flash may cause vignetting, but learning how to use flash properly will take your photography to new levels. I recommend this, take the 101 tutorial: http://strobist.blogspot.com/

I always leave my lens mounted to the body when I put it in my bag. Make sure things are not rattling around, you should be fine.

JimKing Loc: Salisbury, Maryland USA

The purpose of a lens hood is to prevent "non image forming light" from striking the lens which lowers contrast. Generally we don't want this effect and therefore I always leave the hood attached. The only exception that comes to mind is removing the hood to place the front of the lens (barrel not glass) directly against a window to photograph through it without reflections. Ok another possible reason is when using the built in flash a large lens may create a shadow by blocking some of the light from the flash in the bottom of the frame. If the lens is large removing the hood may or may not eliminate the problem. Yes it will protect the front of the lens by reducing the chance of it being touched/scratched by something. If the hood came with the lens vignetting should not be a problem. For a zoom lens the hood is designed to not cause vignetting at even the widest angle.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

I can't imagine who would say lens hoods fail to offer protection to the lens... unless they are talking about the flexible rubber or home-made paper kind.

Bobbee

RAK wrote:

Lens hood goes onto your lens backwards, lens down into your bag. Make sure you put lens cap on first. Keep lens attached to camera body. Hood will protect lens but so will care of your equipment. As you become more active with you camera you will develop a sense of how to handle your equipment. Good luck and shoot often.

I typically place the hood on backwards and then in the bag.
1 - 2-3 time the hood got jostled in my bag and the hood 'threaded' itself down onto the lens. What a pain to get it off without damaging each.
2 - once, with a kit lens on my D200 the lens/camera must have slid forward and slapped the inside of the bag. The lens does not focus automatically any more in the reverse direction.

I have not stopped the backward mount of the hood but now I take care of the placement and barriers around the camera.

crimesc324 Loc: West Palm Beach, Florida

AndyCE wrote:

Still a newbie, and my first lens has arrived. (j... (show quote)

as RAK said, backwards on lens when going into bag

wilsondl Loc: Lincoln, NE

The lens hoods purpose is to be a sun shade. The protection to the lens is just a bonus. I have a big enough bags so I can just leave the hood on with the lens attached to camera. Why take the lens off and let dust get in if you don't have too. - Dave

ocbeyer Loc: Baltimore

Sometimes a hood can actually hurt a lens, as when I damaged the plastic AF gears in my cheap little Canon 18-55 kit lens while twisting the hood onto the barrel, (which is not uncommon). I noticed the OEM hood is pretty stiff on my 70-300, too, so I try to be careful. I only use hoods on long lenses now and all my lenses have Hoya clear filters for protection. My camera never goes in the bag, it is just for my lenses and gear.

What's a lens cap?

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

When you get to the point where you are carrying your camera on a strap at your side at a wedding and some kid bumps it, you will be glad you have a hood on it.Or anywhere you are staying prepared to shoot and people are around, i keep it on as a sort of bump absorber.

On the very rare occasions where I use on-camera flash I have not had any vignetting issues. you would need a pretty wide angle dispersant pattern to get any spill on your lens. And shooting manual can prevent that too.

john clayton

There are so many lens hoods on the market today. Normal, petal, folding. Just think about your lens in use ,high ratio are very much used nowadays, so folding is a good bet.A of V is a good thing to learn.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

AndyCE wrote:

Still a newbie, and my first lens has arrived. (j... (show quote)

As has been said reverse the hood when putting it in the bag. I allways use a clear filter and a hood. The way I look at it, $50 is cheap insurance to protect a $700 lens. Even if it doesn't help in any event it can't hurt.

Dick Z. Loc: Downers Grove IL

RAK wrote:

Lens hood goes onto your lens backwards, lens down into your bag. Make sure you put lens cap on first. Keep lens attached to camera body. Hood will protect lens but so will care of your equipment. As you become more active with you camera you will develop a sense of how to handle your equipment. Good luck and shoot often.

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: