www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I am seriously cosidering buying the canon EF 100mm f2.8 USM macro lens.
There seems to be some debate about the usefulness of a lens hood for this. Some seem to suggest that most macro photographers dont use one.

I would be interested in your views especially as the hood isnt cheap.

Many thanks

Hugh

I hardly ever use a hood for macro. On my Tamron 90mm, the front element is deeply recessed anyway - not sure of the layout of the Canon. Also, a hood makes the 'front end' much larger and more likely to scare away butterflies, etc. On the other hand, I usually use a hood for landscape and telephoto work.

Mike

I use a hood with my Nikon to stop sticks/grasses etc brushing against the lens. It also acts as a marker to stop me getting too close to the subject!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Rather than buy the expensive hood, why not get one of those folding rubber ones that attach to the filter thread? Pull it forwards when you want to use it, fold it back when you don't.

Block the sun with your other hand. More easily controlled than a fixed lens hood.

Jack

Jack Harrison wrote:Block the sun with your other hand.

Or recruit an assistant for this job (e.g. long-suffering partner) - it can be tricky to determine the correct position for your own hand!

Mike

Mike:

it can be tricky to determine the correct position for your own hand!

Not really. You hold in approx the right place, move until it JUST appears at the edge of the frame and then move hand back slightly. Easy-peasy.

I accept that with a ten kilogram DSLR, holding camera with one hand might not be an option

Digress. Heard a lovely story from an Englishman who had been on holiday in France some years ago. He tried his schoolboy French and asked - well tried to ask - for a kilogram of sausages. Unfortunately, his French was somewhat lacking. He asked for a kilometre of sausages

Jack

That lens is around £350.00, the lens hood you can pick up for just £25, I would get it, and use it. Yes you are unlikely to get lens flare while doing macro work, but sods law the time you do get flare, it will be on a great shot. Plus its better than looking an idiot trying to block the sun with your hand.

Regards Gruditch

Thanks all. I have hoods on all my lens except 50 mm which is deeply recessed and have the rubber one on my zoom. Use them not just for flare but for protection as I don't like skylights/filters.
I started this thread as a remark on a thread I was searching said most macro photographers didn't use them. Seemed strange so thanks all for the clarification and suggestions - though must ay Jack, with my arthritic hands, one handed photography is impossible

thanks again

Hugh

Plus its better than looking an idiot trying to block the sun with your hand.

There seems to be a fad nowadays for those big rose-petal-thingies stuck on the front of cameras, even in dull overcast weather. Now if that doesn’t look idiotic, then I don’t know what does.
Well actually I do know where a rose would look even more ridiculous, but it’s not appropriate to discuss on this forum.

Jack

Oooh I think I got a nibble

Regards Gruditch

When somebody I know purchased the Canon EF 100 macro with IS, it came with the hood.

Debbie

Lens hood is usually included in a camera purchase.

A conventional lens hood has to designed cope with camera lens at its widest angle. My method of using a hand does mean that I can still shade the lens (from flare) when in telephoto mode and pointing very much closer to the sun: that wouldn't be the case with the general-purpose lens hood.

One point not mentioned so far is that a lens hood does provide a degree of lens protection from accidental knocks.

Jack

Jack wrote-

One point not mentioned so far is that a lens hood does provide a degree of lens protection from accidental knocks.

Actually it was Jack-

Wurzel-

I use a hood with my Nikon to stop sticks/grasses etc brushing against the lens.

Hugh Middleton-

Use them not just for flare but for protection

Harrison minor - take 100 lines! "I must read posts more carefully"

Jack Harrison wrote:Lens hood is usually included in a camera purchase.



Jack

It isn't included with the 'cheaper' canon lenses. Got a decent deal from my local shop yesterday and also an invite to a free macro afternoon tomorrow.

Hugh

A lens hood could have another advantage - during the 2012 monsoon. I have just checked my rain gauge. 34 mms in the past four or five hours. (Exact start time uncertain - I'm guessing from the rain radar images) The rainfall is quite phenomenal. It would have to be a mighty large lens hood in these conditions.

Jack

Hugh Middleton wrote:


It isn't included with the 'cheaper' canon lenses. Got a decent deal from my local shop yesterday and also an invite to a free macro afternoon tomorrow.

Hugh

Glad you got your lens and look forward to any snippeds from your macro afternoon.

Debbie

Jack Harrison wrote:A lens hood could have another advantage - during the 2012 monsoon. I have just checked my rain gauge. 34 mms in the past four or five hours. (Exact start time uncertain - I'm guessing from the rain radar images) The rainfall is quite phenomenal. It would have to be a mighty large lens hood in these conditions.

Jack

Brollies Galore do an interesting selection of butterfly umbrellas (and before some bright spark says it - for us not the butterflies )

Debbie

Update on my rain. Total of 51 mms between 0300 and 1300 of which some 45 mms fell during the peak three hour period. Wow, wow, wow!

Jack