frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

Leave the filter in place and add the hood.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

You'll need an HB-N106 - $26 at B&H.

Or you can buy the offshore knockoff on eBay for $1.86 including shipping.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HB-N106-Lens-Hood-Sun-Shade-Camera-Accessories-For-Nikon-D5300-D5500-D3300/332321265600?hash=item4d5fe417c0:g:hJsAAOSwySlaINKv

I don't know how they sell it for that price with shipping included. I't might even work - for <$2 it's worth a gamble.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

DEFINITELY get the matching Nikon HP-106N bayonet mount lens hood. It's better than a generic, screw-in metal lens hood in any number of ways.

1. "Tulip" design made to match the specific lens gives better and more effective shading to a zoom lens without causing any vignetting. Generic round hoods at best are matched to the shortest focal length of the zoom, so won't do very much to shade the lens at the other end of the focal length range. This is true of hoods for wide angle to wide angle and especially with wide/normal/short telephoto zooms. A properly matched "tulip" design is particularly important with those types of zooms (incl. an 18-55mm... a wide/normal/short tele design).

2. The bayonet mounting method insures it's properly positioned on the lens. There are "generic" tulip shaped hoods that use a screw-in mounting, but can end up incorrectly positioned more often than not.

3. The HB-106N and other bayonet hoods can be reverse mounted on their lens for convenient storage in the minimum amount of space. The lens cap can used normally and filters, if necessary, can remain installed on the lens.

4. Lens hoods of all types do a far better job physically protecting a lens, than some thin piece of glass in a UV/protection filter ever could. In fact, if using a filter it's a good idea to also use a hood... to protect the filter from accidental breakage or a bent metal rim that causes it to get stuck on the lens.

5. High impact plastic hoods like the HP-106N do a far better job protecting a lens from accidental bumps and impacts, than screw-in metal hoods do. The plastic tends to flex and absorb much of the impact. Often a plastic hood doesn't break, but if it does it's a lot cheaper and easier to replace, than damage to the lens would be. A metal hood doesn't flex and transmits the shock directly to the lens barrel, so is more likely to cause internal damage and jammed mechanisms.

6. A properly fitted lens hood can only improve image quality by keeping oblique light off the front element of the lens (whereas a "protection" filter may degrade IQ a little or a lot, depending upon the filter quality and lighting conditions).

The Nikon HP-106N costs $25. If you want to save some money, there are third party "clones" such as the Vello HP-106N selling for about half that. The clones essentially do the same job, but may not be quite as good fitting or as well finished.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Plus the OEM hoods usually have what I call flocking inside to stop light bouncing and mine seem to gather a fair amount of dust and such too...keeping it from ending up on the front of the lens perhaps. Not sure the lower cost hoods have that feature. I have the Canon hoods for all my lenses and never use a UV filter. I do use some other filters occasionally and the lens caps for storage and travel.

Best,
Todd Ferguson

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Nobody knows for sure - but I am old school - so I use METAL ! - for better or worse.

flashgordonbrown Loc: Silverdale, WA

I sold lots of UV and Skylight filters while employed as a camera salesperson.The conventional wisdom was that it was cheap protection for the front element of the lens(finger prints, errant objects, dropping etc.). As time passed, I became more aware of optical formulas, and the fact that for the most part putting an inexpensive filter on the front of an expensive lens might not be the best idea. That isn't to say that there aren't some uses for certain filters in some situations: circular polarizers and nd filters come to mind. That being said, even the effects of those filters can be duplicated in post processing.














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bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

For a Nikon lens, you should use a Nikon lens hood. For the 18-55 AF-P 3.5-5.6G VR, that is the model HB-N106 lens hood. It bayonet mounts to the outside rim of the lens and is independent of the filter which is screwed into the threaded interior of the front rim of the lens. You should not use a hood that screws into the filter retaining threads because if your lens takes a hit, you will brake the plastic front of your lens off.

You should always use a lens hood for multiple reasons that you can read about in other posts. Every piece of glass you put in front of your lens reduces the quality of your image to some degree, therefore you should not use a filter unless there is a valid photographic or artistic reason to do so. Using a UV filter as "protection" of your lens lens is not a photographic or artistic reason. The hood will protect your lens in most circumstances. Unless you are doing special effects such as color tints, starburst, etc., you should only need a circular polarizer and perhaps neutral density filters.

Also, if you need to know what size filter your lens takes, every Nikon lens has engraved in small letters on the lens barrel near the back of the lens the filter size that the lens takes. If you look for the Greek letter Psi (a zero with a vertical line bisecting the numeral zero), the two digit number following it will be the filter size in millimeters. You are correct that your lens takes 55mm filters.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Is this from personal experience or just continuing the myth? Twice I have dropped lenses, one on concrete and one on a wood floor. Both the lenses were north of $1K each and both were protected by Nikon lens hoods who made the ultimate sacrifice.

A real Nikon lens hood has breakaway slots molded into the rear of the hood that are designed to be the weak point and fail on impact. No damage to the lenses or mounts.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Interesting, ....but I am an old school Canon/Sony shooter - so I use METAL.

Paulie Loc: NW IL