CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

Get the Nikon one. It will it fit perfectly and we are not talking big bucks here.

Charles 46277 Loc: Fulton County, KY

Yes, I have bought really cheap Chinese ones from eBay that did not fit my Canon, but would not hesitate to get generic ones from good dealers. If you can get a rectangular one for your lens, that works better. They ought to be included with all lenses.

Dean37 Loc: Fresno, CA

My experience with my Nikon lens hoods, are "they work". I dropped a 28-200 lens about 10 inches to the top of a wooden desk, and the bayonet part cracked and then broke, when I took it off to inspect it. I couldn't find a Nikon replacement one, so I did buy a cheap no name one, which fit and doesn't vignette, so I am using it. I have since found a Nikon one, bought it and have a reserve. If I sell the lens, it will be sold with both. If the cheap ones work, why not use them? Anytime I buy a used lens, I try to get the one with a factory hood.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

There are cheaper "clones" and there are sometimes even cheaper "generic" lens hoods.

Usually you would do best to avoid cheap "generic" lens hoods.

Most lenses today use dedicated bayonet mount hoods. Some dedicated hoods clip on or attach in other ways. The key word here is "dedicated". These hoods are designed to give the lens maximum possible protection, while avoiding causing vignetting in images.

There are OEM (in this case Nikon) dedicated and, in many cases, cheaper third party dedicated "clone" hoods that are very close copies of the OEM. These third party clone hoods might be fine. But sometimes they don't fit as well, so buy from a reputable store just in case you need to return it.

This is in contrast to "generic" hoods of all types.... screw-in, rubber, universal petal-shaped (with a screw-in adapter). Typically it's difficult to find any of these that are ideal for a particular lens. More often than not they don't do a very effective job shading the lens. They also usually can't be reversed for convenient and compact storage on the lens. The problem with rubber hoods is that they "collapse", so they also don't provide very good physical protection for the lens against bumps or drops.

Look up the model number of the Nikon hood made specifically for your lens, then search for that. You'll find not only the Nikon brand hood (typically expensive), you'll also often find one or more cheaper third party clones of it. Vello is one of the third party manufacturers making a lot of the clone hoods and they usually cost 1/3 to 1/2 less than the equivalent OEM hood.

For example, the AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G comes with Nikon HB-47 bayonet mount hood. If you break or lose the hood that came with the lens, the Nikon brand replacement HB-47 costs about $35. If that seems a bit pricey for a lens that cost you around $200 and originally including the hood, a virtually identical Vello HB-47 costs around $20. But if you do a search for "lens hood" to fit the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8, you'll get a bunch of generic 58mm diameter screw-in hoods... metal, plastic, rubber... some of which might work okay, but a lot of which are not very good choices for various reasons.

One possible exception.... Some people using circular polarizing filters, which are adjusted by rotating the outer ring of the filter (same with, UGH, variable neutral density) prefer to use a screw-in filter so it's easier to adjust the filter without having to remove the hood. But you have to be careful choosing a generic screw-in filter for this purpose, to get one that's truly effective shading and protecting the lens, but also doesn't cause vignetting in images.

I'm not sure Amazon is the best place to look for lens hoods. Yes, they have the OEM and the likely good-fitting OEM clones... but they also have a whole lot of generic hoods on there. With Amazon Direct it's not a problem because returns are easy, if necessary. But with some of the other sellers on Amazon it can be hard to tell which is which. There seem to be some tricky seller ads with cheap generics masquerading as OEM or clones and might be a problem returning something that doesn't work out well.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Since it has threads, that's an example of a "generic" screw-in petal hood. Maybe it was "posing" as a "correct fit" for the EF-S 18-55mm lens when you bought it. It's actually not. It's a "universal" screw-in hood that apparently doesn't fit well and is probably very easily mis-positioned so the longer petals cause the vignetting in images you're seeing (although I'd have expected to see vignetting at the 18mm setting... not at 55mm).

There's a difference between "generic" hoods and the third party clones of the OEM hoods. The generics often don't fit or work well. The clones may or may not be quite as good as the OEM, but usually fit and work pretty well.

Proper lens hoods for most Canon lenses, including all the 18-55mm, are bayonet mount... not threaded. (A few modern Canon lenses use clamp-on or clip-on hoods, or have built-in.... None use screw-in.)

Depending upon which Canon 18-55mm lens you've got, it uses a different hood.

The EF-S 18-55mm "STM" lens uses Canon EW-63C ($22), "tulip" shaped, bayonet mount hood. The Vello EW-63C is a $10 clone.

EF-S 18-55mm "II" lens uses Canon EW-60C ($18) bayonet mount hood. Vello EW-60C clone costs $10. These are not tulip shaped hoods. It so happens Vello makes one, their EW-60CT, $15.... HOWEVER, I don't know how well that works because this lens' front barrel rotates during focusing, which will cause the tulip "petals" to be incorrectly positioned more often than not.

I don't know what hood the earlier EF-S 18-55mm uses. Probably the same as the "II", since it's front barrel rotates (only the STM's doesn't, and so can use a tulip hood).

Finally, the "EF-M" 18-55mm STM (for the M-series mirrorless cameras), uses EW-54 bayonet mount, tulip shaped hood: Canon OEM ($20), Vello ($10) or Fotodiox ($8).

ronpier Loc: Poland Ohio

OEM lens hoods made specifically for a particular camera would be my first choice.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I have spent over $3,500.00 for a camera and over $2,500.00 for a lens and I'm not going to save $20.00 to get a lens cover that may not fit 100%.

We spend more on gas to get a shot, then to be sure we have the correct equipment. Yes some cheeper ones my work. I bought my last lens shade from B&H as the Tamron rep told me B&H was cheeper than a direct buy from Tamron.

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

Some people are too into the name brand; the hoods on eBay or Amazon are just as good as the camera mfg brand. Why would you think that the camera Mfg makes better ones? Do you think that they make them themselves?