Sunhoods, do they do much?

[gene_can_sing]

Hi,

I was about to pick up a Sunhood for my Canon Zoom lense attached to my Beaulieu 4008, and I wondering if most people think that Sunhoods do much? My friend who is a good DP claims that they don't do much of anything.

What do you guys think about Sunhoods? Useful or useless?

[super8man]

They prevent light from entering the lens barrel from very wide angles - these side-sources of light generally reduce the contrast of your image due to these wide angle light rays bouncing internally between the elements (typical zoom lenses have anywhere from 7-14 elements or more...average amount is roughly 11 I would guess for super 8. Some lenses have more elements.

So, as long you your lens hood doesn't get in the picture (vignetting, etc), it is doing its job.

Cheers,
Mike

[jpolzfuss]

Hi,

sunhoods protect your camera from recording lens-flare in some cases. They don't work in all cases, but it's definitely better than "no cases". Depending on the lens they might have no effect, especially in the "tele"-range. But IMHO they're a must in the "wide"-range.

Jörg

[mattias]

i'd say it does *a lot* and i wouldn't recommend anyone to ever shoot without one. a zoom shade will do much less than one for a prime though since it needs to work at the widest, and thus does nothing on telephoto even though that's when it's needed. shades with an exchangeable front matte are the best since you can eliminate all stray light that way. for outdoor work a french flag, basically an extra shade above the lens, is great.

/matt

[Justin Lovell]

especially on that canon 1014xls.. don't let it get nailed with light, it just hazes the image over with a blue tint.. really noticeable when shooting neg.

-- on a side note you can dial some of that blue haze out in color correction, but you're much better off starting with a clean image.--

[flatwood]

I wouldnt shoot without some kind of shade unless the light was directly behing the camera. Proper shade makes a big difference.