Cue Nick doing a grumpy? (8-p)

Oh god let's hope not.

Mark

[LIFTED] you you [LIFTED]

The [LIFTED] censorship on this [LIFTED] forum really takes the sting out of your [LIFTED] rants.

It's like a [LIFTED] Lighthouse Family fan group.

So... back to the topic? The lens hoods on my Sigma lenses are not great as you can't put the lens cap on when using them, however most of the time it's not sunny when I use them so I don't need the hoods. My 300mm has a built-in hood which I use all the time, except when rotating the polariser, and my 16-35mm zoom likewise.

Oh, the hood on the kit lens Samsung/Pentax 18-55 has a little trap door you can slide open to rotate filters. Wish my Sigma had that!

I specifically bought a hood for my kit lens (before I sold it with the 400D) as the focussing ring was tiny. Grabbing the hood was a much better way to do it. I thought about doing the same for my nifty-fifty, but I think that has an adaptor which attaches the hood to the filter ring, not the focussing ring, so it mightn't help.

Only my Sigma 70-300mm came with a hood so that's the only one I use a hood on. I did think about getting one for the other two (thankfully the same thread size) but I haven't felt the need to.

Use the hoods all the time with the occasional macro exception.

Al

Everyone talks about hood for avoiding flare, but I am going to buy a couple for my longer lenses to keep the rain off the front element when I'm hanging around on damp days waiting to take a shot- e.g. at air shows.

For this use, I can't see there being much point on a wide angle. I'm going to get mine from Premier Ink (and photographic) as their third party hoods are a third of the price of the Canon originals- Thirty [LIFTED] quid for piece of conical plastic. Get bent!

I tend not to use one on wide-angles but always do on teles. I agree with "trigger" (ahem) that apart from the flare issue, I find it helps keeps the rain off the filter; even when aiming at the sky, it helps