is there a general rule of thumb when it comes to lens hoods ?/ when or when not to use ??

BW- Big Wayner My motocross kid is faster than your A student !!

Hi Wayne,

I use a lens hood All the time. It prevents flare and ghosting and as an added bonus provides additional protection for the front element of the lens.
I usually don't use a hood when using my R1C or a polarizer.
Good Luck and Enjoy your Nikons!

Best Regards,
Marty

Wayne,
I keep a hood on my 35mm f2 all the time, because it is prone to flare and ghosting. My 50 and 105mm lenses wear hoods outdoors all the time, and inside most of the time.

James

I always use hoods, for protection and shading the lens from stray light. I only remove the lens specific hood when using a polarizer or grad filter, both of which fit on a Cokin holder, and so prevent the regular hood from being used. Even then I usually add on the square Cokin hoods that are designed to attach to the holder.

Chris O'Donoghue
Winnipeg, Manitoba

All the time, unless I'm using filters. It's a habit.

Garrett

This is my Nikonians gallery.

Like all the others, the only time I don't use a lens hood is if I'm using Cokin filter holder to use neutral density or graduated neutral density filters.

The hoods help prevent flare and ghosting and give general protection to the front of the lens.

Ned
A Nikonians Team Member

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Visit my Travel Photography Blog and my Galleries.

Like the others, I use my hood all the time. I would remove it for flash if you are using the built in flash on your camera. I leave it on when using my SB800.

Jerry Jaynes
Great Smoky Mountains
of North Carolina

http://www.flickr.com/photos/by_jerry_jaynes/

I use the hood pretty much all the time. The exceptions

- a couple of my lenses have the front element so deeply recessed that there's no reason to use the hood. For example, the 55/f2.8 AIS Micro has the front element recessed at least an inch, deeper than the hood would be anyway.

- I use a set of Lee filters for grads and ND; I use the hood of the Lee system instead of the lens' regular hood in these cases.

- I pretty much always use the regular hood even with flash. In some cases the built-in flashes would cast a shadow; in those cases I use an external flash, period. This exception isn't even an exception for me.

- I have one lens that I bought 30 years ago and which did not come with a hood. I don't use it much and as it happens this particular lens (a Tamron 28/f2.5) is extremely resistant to flare. Since I haven't found a good hood that fits its very small format (49mm filters) this lens does without a hood.

- Finally, I have one lens, the 8mm Sigma circular fisheye, that simply cannot use a hood at all, since it would actually be in the image.

_____
Brian... a bicoastal Nikonian and Team Member

My gallery is online. Comments and critique welcomed any time!

All the time--for protection and blocking as much contrast-killing extraneous light as possible--except for physical factors that Brian mentioned.

Dan L.
http://www.danlarussophotography.com/

Thanks folks a hoodie i will be !!!

BW- Big Wayner My motocross kid is faster than your A student !!

Very educational, I have one never used it, I'm going to have to try and see if it makes a difference now. Glad I read this.

A lens hood is the cheapest and easiest way to improve your photographs IQ.

Colin

"We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are" - Anaïs Nin

Most of the time I use lens hoods designed for that specific focal length. (When I was using film cameras long back I was a fan of against the light pictorial photography. i.e. the Sun would be in front of you but just outside the viewfinder area. Zoom lenses even with hoods would give you dome ghosts. Prime lenses do not. But when you include the Sun into the picture - say well inside the frame, then the hood serves no purpose. You have to necessarily shoot with a prime lens only.)

I do not know how these new digital camera zooms with to-days high technology behave, I am yet to experiment with them as I have only switched over to digital just recently and trying to find time to do photography,

Hope this helps
With best regards
PRSS