I need a little advice..

[LavenderRose]

Hi. I'm pretty new to photography. I have a Rebel XSi and would like to buy a hood for my lenses. I have seen two different types though. One is a long solid piece and the other is a tulip hood. Which one is better? I have two lenses 18-55mm and a 55mm-250mm. Any help will be appreciated! =)

[faeriegodess612]

I'm not sure about the difference in them. I have a straight one for my 70-300 and a tulip for my 18-55. But one thing that you have to know when buying them is the diameter of your lens. The 18-55 is most likely 52mm wide. You also have to know this when buying filters. Oh,.. and its a bitch to use a CPL filter along with a lens hood. ( Yes,..I've done this. )

[inkista]

Just me, but solid hoods work better with telephoto (long) lenses, and petal hoods with wide angle (short ones).

Because wide angle lenses cover a larger field of view, the hood has to be shallower not to impinge on the frame. The corner cutouts on petal hoods keep the hood from appearing in the shot with wide angle lenses. The wider the lens, the less physical protection and shading the hood can give you.

Telephoto lenses have much narrower fields of view, so a longer, solid tube can be used.

If at all possible, try and get a bayonet hood that's made for the lens, rather than some generic one that screws onto the front filter threads. (faeriegodess, using a bayonet hood which goes around the outside of the lens barrel frees up the lens's filter threads for filters. Also, the Canon 18-55 takes a 58mm filter thread, as does the 55-250 IS). The bayonet hood will have been designed for the lens's focal length/FoV, and it's easier to use filters and front lens caps, and will be a bit more sturdy since it won't attach by the lens's front filter threads.

[Biomech]

I'd say get the petal hood, because at 18mm you might start catching it with the solid type

generic one that screws onto the front filter threads.

Didn't even know they made those :P

[SwissJon]

Suggest you take a look at the hood that was with the lens when it was new.

By the looks of it, the 18-55 came with a very shor conical hood, which is next to useless. I'd suggest a petal hood.



The 55-250 seemed to come with a long conical hood, which might be appropriate

[NathanFranke]

My advice: do a test run. Print your own lens hoods from here, and see which style is better. If you don't like the look of diy-chic, then buy a real hood once you've determined which one is best for your lens. Otherwise, you've just saved yourself some money.

[dlambert]

Cool link, Nathan. Yeah, I'm just about positive you're going to need a petal hood for the wide-angle lens. I got generic hoods for my 17-85 (petal) and 70-300 (solid). The hood that came with my Panasonic FZ-28, incidentally, is a petal-type, and when it's not aligned properly, the hood is visible in photos, so this is definitely something you'll run into at the wide end.

Both of the generic hoods I got are bayonet mounts, BTW, and I haven't had any problems with them. I'd also recommend skipping anything that mounts to the filter threads. Among other things, this would keep you from using both a filter and the hood at the same time, I believe.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by dlambert

... I'd also recommend skipping anything that mounts to the filter threads. Among other things, this would keep you from using both a filter and the hood at the same time, I believe.

Actually, the screw-on hoods typically also have filter threads on them, so you can "stack" filters on top, but they're usually cheap plastic, and it's easy to strip the threads, and can be a PITA to use.

However, screw-on hoods can sometimes be your only resort with lenses that don't have flanges for a bayonet-mount hood (e.g., the EF 50mm f/1.8 II).

[dlambert]

Yeah, I was wondering about that, but that also implies that if you want to take off the hood, but keep the filter on, it's a two-step process. Uggh.

[inkista]

Well you could stack the hood on top of the filter... but chances are good when you go to unscrew the one, both come off at the same time. They're just fiddly and annoying.