Lens Hood or no Lens Hood

[CdnAvSpotter]

In bright sunlight I have always used my lens hoods on my 18-200mm, 70-300mm and 100-400mm lenses and the pictures I get are dull, not very sharp, and sometimes darker. A month ago I was shooting in the early morning light without the lens hood and every picture was crisp, bright and clean. Yesterday I was out in the bright sun-light and did not use a lens hood, and again all the pics were crisp, bright and clean.

Anybody have an explanation?

Dean

[Bluedharma]

Hi Dean,

Lens hoods should increase contrast and reduce glare and flares.
They are only bad when you use a flash indoors.

The best part is that they protect your lens from the bumps and scratches that may happen.
This could be a lot worse without a hood.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotosniper2000/2305311004/

Not sure why you are getting dull, blurry images with it on. With a hood they may be darker, but not blurry. Strange.



Best Regards,
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Bluedharma
http://flickr.com/photos/bluedharma/
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[John Little]

Lens Hoods cause two thing:

1) It will reduce spurious light from entering your lens, reducing flare
2) It can reduce the reflected light from the object your trying to photograph

Sounds goofy, but depending on the light surrounding the object that you are taking a picture of, your in camera light metering system may be defeating you.

Try this out and see what happens:

1) Set Camera to Matrix Metering (or whatever your camera calls full frame metering), take a photograph in a bright sky with a plane in it, both with and without the lens hood.

2) Set Camera to Spot Metering, take a photograph in a bright sky with a plane in it, both with and without the lens hood.

My D300 works completely different in each case......
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Jlittle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlittle2

[CdnAvSpotter]

Hi John

I am using a Canon Rebel XT(350D). The next time there is a bright blue sky, I will try your suggestions.

Thanks

Dean