Lens hood, do they serve a purpose?

[j_riederer]

I was basically wondering what a lens hood actually does and if it is worth the 20 bucks in getting one before I head out for a backpacking trip to Colarado at the end of July. They make you look very profesional but what purpose do they serve?

http://www.natimage.com

[VTphotog]

Lens hoods are to keep extraneous light from entering the lens and causing flare. This is more prevalent with zoom lenses. They also provide some physical protection.

brian

[slipe]

They also increase the contrast of an image. Extraneous light in the lens produces fogging in the picture. With a long zoom range lens it is almost impossible to get a really good lens hood that is effective throughout the range. If the hood doesn't vignette at wide it is less effective at telephoto.

[j_riederer]

I'm sorry this is probablya really dumb question but I see the word Vignette everywhere, what is it?

[Nagasaki]

It's darkening or masking at the corners of the pictures. It can be caused by a lens hood, filters or just poor lens design.

[stnkline]

j_riedererwrote:

I'm sorry this is probablya really dumb question but I see the word Vignette everywhere, what is it?

I bought my camera FZ20 just a few months age and was a complete novice.

I began to ask question and received more info in these few months than all the time I had my previous two digi-cams.

The is NO such thing as a dumb question. period. Need info=== Just ASK!

I now have the habit of asking questions till I whollyunderstand.

Very fewposters get miffed but they do not haveto answer but on the other hand many [most]others WILL go out of their way to post replies.

Back to vignetting. If the image the camera receives is smaller than the camera is set for the corners of the image are darkened or just blurred. Like looking thru a pin hole.You will not see a large image. Make the pin hole large enough the camera will 'see' all the image.Some add-on lenses cause vignetting because the image passing thru the lenses is just too small for the camera and the corners are 'lost'.Found this out a few months ago myself in one of the posts. Want to learn: read all the new posts and ask more questions till you do completely understand that post.

STAN

[eR1c]

vignette is that stuff you put on your salad,
oh wait that's vinigrette!

jk!

[KCan]

FYI, from Steve dictionary:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/digi_dictionary.html

Vignetting - A term that describes the darkening of the outer edges of the image area due to the use of a filter or add-on lens. Most noticeable when the zoom lens is in full wideangle.

for example: the Vignetted Vinaigrette :G:

[Andybrightuk]

j_riederer wrote:

I was basically wondering what a lens hood actually does and if it is worth the 20 bucks in getting one before I head out for a backpacking trip to Colarado at the end of July. They make you look very profesional but what purpose do they serve?

They'd better be worth it, Nikon would want almost $1000 to replace the one on my lens :shock:

[Stratman]

KCan wrote:

FYI, from Steve dictionary:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/digi_dictionary.html

for example: the Vignetted Vinaigrette :G:

The funniest pic I've seen on stevesforums.com!

Thanks, eh.

Oh yeah, thanks for Molson's too.