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I have Nikon D5200 with 18-55mm kit lens, and I want to buy a lens hood. Some related questions:

  • Will the lens hood increase the photo quality?
  • What are the types of lens hood?
  • Should I be looking at a "petal" lens hood or a circular one?
Philip Kendall
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lsrawat
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    Why do you want to buy a lens hood if you don't know what it does? – Philip Kendall Aug 03 '15 at 11:21
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    @Philip Kendall I know it saves lense from scratches. That's the primary purpose i wanted to buy. So i thought i should get all the info regarding lense hood. I am a beginner in photography . I can can get info on google also but i thought may be i can get better answer from experienced photographer, if anyone present here. – lsrawat Aug 03 '15 at 11:32
  • Thanks for sharing the link @DanWolfgang . Can you suggest what will be good for my 18-55mm lense , a flower hood or circular hood. Thanks – lsrawat Aug 03 '15 at 13:21
  • @lsrawat: I don't see an option. It looks like there is only one hood for your lens. http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Nikon-Products/Product/Lens-Hoods/HB-45-Lens-Hood.html – Dan Wolfgang Aug 03 '15 at 13:30
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    Also see Do lens hoods need to be matched to focal length? – mattdm Aug 03 '15 at 13:58
  • Hi Israwat, and welcome to Stack Exchange. This is intended to be a focused Q&A site with minimal chattiness, so there's no need to say thanks for every comment or answer. Instead, you can upvote answers, or you can click the little up arrow by comments to vote up the comments you found helpful. No one will think that you're rude if you don't spell out thank you. :) – mattdm Aug 03 '15 at 15:33

2 Answers2

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Aside from preventing you from banging the front of your lens when you're careless, lens hoods help prevent lens flare in certain lighting situations where a strong light source is out of the frame, but still on axis enough to send light into the lens. Think of looking off into the distance with the sun in your face and you raise your hand to shade your eyes. The lens hood acts like your hand.

My advice is to buy the lens hood designed to fit your lens.

DLS3141
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  • Will the lens hood increase the photo quality?

In general yes, but not always! If the sun is in your field of view, then unfortunately, the lens hood cannot block that. Also, at times, if you happen to have a UV filter on and then a hood on top, this can at times create vignetting. It doesn't happen with all hoods, but can do so with some after market models.

Also, with some zoom lenses, you may find that you still get flares and unwanted reflections if you are using a petal hood and have the camera in a vertical orientation. I quite often find myself turning the hood or using a newspaper to create a shade.

  • What are the types of lens hood?

Most common are, Petal; used for wider angle primes and zooms, and complete circular with felt interiors, used for larger primes and Zoom lenses. Wider angle lenses need the extra cutout on each side to allow for the maximum width of the lens.

  • Should I be looking at a "petal" lens hood or a circular one?

For the 18-55mm, you need to be looking at a petal hood in order to ensure that no light is blocked from either side and therefore you are capturing the complete image.

Abdul N Quraishi
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  • You and DLS3141 suggest using "the" petal hood. Some quick searching doesn't turn one up for me. Which petal hood is for the 18-55? – Dan Wolfgang Aug 03 '15 at 20:43
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    Unfortunately, on this stack we are not in a position to give the exact product recommendations, however, the HB-69 maybe the one required. It is a 52mm hood – Abdul N Quraishi Aug 03 '15 at 20:48
  • @AbdulNQuraishi Hello. I have Panasonic G5 with 14-42mm lens kit. I have petal hood with 2 short petals and 2 long petals. Do I need to use this hood for product photography in shooting tent outdoors when there's sun? What if I shoot indoors but with limited lighting? Thanks! – Boris_yo Oct 10 '15 at 12:11