Why bayonet hood

Do you need one? What lens hood should you buy for your lens? What are lens hoods for? Why use a lens hood? When do you use one? These are just some of the questions we get asked. The main reason you use a lens hood is to stop stray light coming onto your lens which can create lens flare and give your images less contrast. This normally happens when shooting into the sun or when you have a strong light source in front of the lens. Taken without a lens hood.

Gives a washed-out look and shows lens flare. The circles you see is the light reflecting off the glass elements within the lens. Taken using the camera lens hood. It quite simply blocks light from going over the front element of your lens. Below is a simple image of the same thing in the same place. One with a lens hood on the camera, and one without it. The lens hood is creating a shadow over the front element of the lens thus blocking the light from hitting it.

In this case, you are likely to get lens flare. This will give your pictures a stronger contrast of colours and tones and to stop lens flare.

The store will not work correctly in the case when cookies are disabled. Advanced Search. Skip to the end of the images gallery. Skip to the beginning of the images gallery. As a result, a variety of designs has developed over time. The most common type of lens hood is the plastic bayonet-mount cylinder that screws to the front end of the lens housing.

These come bundled with most high-end lenses and are usually offered as accessories for cheaper lenses. Because the shading requirements of each lens are different, typically this type of lens hoods are not interchangeable between different lens models. Bayonet-mount lens hoods can be found in all shapes: circular, square or tulip-shaped. The advantage of this design is that it offers maximum physical protection and tailored shading for each individual lens. They usually attach to the outer barrel of the lens via a twisting bayonet mount or locked in place with spring loaded pins.

This type of lens hood allows undisturbed use of screw-in filters. The only drawback of this setup is the need for a separate lens hood for each lens, which can add albeit minimally to the bulk and weight of gear. This is partially remedied by the design of most bayonet lens hoods, which allows them to be mounted backwards on the lens. This reduces the length and only impacts the circumference footprint of the lens in your bag. Do not forget to reverse the lens hood before shooting though. Even worse, a reversed lens hood makes handling your lens-camera combination awkward and can increase the risk of dropping.

Finally, a backwards mounted hood will probably obstruct access to the focus or zoom rings on the lens. The second type of lens hoods is the screw-in type, which screws in the filter threads on the front of the lens. This type of lens hood can be seen more often on vintage lenses and particularly on rangefinders. Screw-in lens hoods are also the second best option for lenses that were not designed with a dedicated lens hood by the manufacturer.

Nowadays, screw-in lens hoods are more often encountered as third-party accessories. Virtually all manufacturers of photographic camera optics offer dedicated bayonet mount lens hoods for their current lenses. The screw-in design means that one lens hood can be physically screwed on different lenses with the same thread diameter or through step down rings.

Somewhat countering the universal fit of the filter thread attachment, rigid screw-in lens hoods are designed to provide optimal shading for only one designated focal length or lens model. They are usually made of metal, and as such are a bit more durable than their plastic analogs. They also look better on all-metal rangefinder cameras favoured by street photographers.

However, this is pretty much where their advantages end. Screw-in lens hoods are more cumbersome to attach or remove from the lens. If you decide to keep the shade on the lens it might require a different size cap, if it supports one at all. Screw-in shades also complicate the use of screw-in filters. They cannot be reverse-mounted on the lens like bayonet lens hoods which makes storing and transporting them a bit more troublesome.

Rigid screw-in hoods are usually found in circular shape. The screw attachment mechanism complicates the proper orienting of petal shaped hoods. There do exist square and petal screw-in shades that use either a separate ring or a type of a friction mount to allow for the hood to be levelled correctly.

The Haoge 39mm Square Screw-in metal lens hood pictured above uses a knurled ring to fix the lens hood in a horizontal position once the hood is partially screwed on the lens.

Screw-in rubber lens hoods, like the Fotodiox pictured above, are the most universal lens hood type. They are simple devices comprised of a metal attachment ring and a flexible rubber hood. Lens Hoods. Did you find what you were looking for? Yes No. Reviews for Popular Lens Hoods. Avishek Roychoudhury Certified Buyer 17days ago. For normal protection it's just ok.

May image clarity also effects it. Ashok Certified Buyer Jan,