Lens hood

vedaeddy

Should I be using the lens hoods that came with my 55-200mm lens? So far I haven't, and my photos look okay (to my untrained eye). I figure it must be important or I wouldn't have gotten one.

ohyeahar

The lens hood serves 2 purposes.

1. Light entering from the side into your lens can potentially cause flare in your shots. A lens hood will block these rays of light. Many years ago, flare was considered undesirable, but it seems nowadays (in our hipster culture), flare is more acceptable. In fact, lots of people add flare to their shots in post processing.

2. The nature of the lens hood is such that it serves as protection for the front elements of your lens. So if your lens bumps into a wall and you have the hood attached, the impact will be absorbed by the hood. And if it breaks, you can easily replace it.

Personally, I use the hoods for my primes and normal zoom lenses. They only extend about an inch or two so they don’t get in the way much. I don’t use the hood for my tele zoom because I find it to be too long. If flare is a problem, I’d rather just try a different shooting angle or perhaps have someone hold something off to the side to block the light.

bruto

Amplifying the above a bit, some of the effects of flare may not be easy to distinguish. Even if you don't see obvious signs, you can have reduced contrast and poor evenness of color, and so forth. I would at least use the hood whenever it's not in the way. Try some difficult shots with and without the hood, and see if it makes a difference.

Most Nikon hoods are designed to stow inverted on the lens, and the caps to go on to an inverted hood, so it's very convenient. Nikon lens caps really are a little different from most, and you can also use a screw-in hood and install the OEM cap inside without removing the hood.

The old aluminum HN-3 is a perfect fit on the 18-55mm kit lens; it's very sturdy.