Do you leave your lense hood on, inverted?

[cdgaskin]

its kinda a must for me as my kit lenses manual focus ring is so thin its hard to grip, luckly my kit hood is only 1cm deep so it works quite nicly as a focus ring grip

[ARKreations]

Mine are stored inverted when in the camera bag and immediately get turned proper upon attachment to the body for use.

[dakwegmo]

Originally Posted by krossk

Mine are stored inverted when in the camera bag and immediately get turned proper upon attachment to the body for use.

Mine too. All of mine would interfere with my shooting if there were left on and inverted.

[DannyF1966]

I only have a lens hood for the long lens, but I keep it inverted when storing the lens in my rucksack and put it on the right way round when I'm using the lens.

[dcclark]

I recently left my lens hood somewhere in or around a 150 year old copper mine. It was probably thwapped off by a tamarack or cedar branch, or by banging against a piece of rock. I don't actually know.

This was a direct result of me taking it into the woods with me for about 2 straight weeks and keeping it on my camera while bushwhacking -- which is what I normally do with my camera (the bushwhacking). This was a direct result of me keeping my lens hood on my camera to see whether it actually was useful and improved image quality -- it wasn't and didn't.

In the future, I will not be taking any lens hoods with me, in any form.

[TheManny]

Originally Posted by dakwegmo

Mine too. All of mine would interfere with my shooting if there were left on and inverted.

Mine three...

Originally Posted by dcclark

I recently left my lens hood somewhere in or around a 150 year old copper mine. It was probably thwapped off by a tamarack or cedar branch, or by banging against a piece of rock. I don't actually know.

This was a direct result of me taking it into the woods with me for about 2 straight weeks and keeping it on my camera while bushwhacking -- which is what I normally do with my camera (the bushwhacking). This was a direct result of me keeping my lens hood on my camera to see whether it actually was useful and improved image quality -- it wasn't and didn't.

In the future, I will not be taking any lens hoods with me, in any form.

The lens hood isn't really designed to help with image quality. it's designed to keep unnecessary light out of the lens. If you are in the woods chances are it would help with keeping branches from hitting the lens and keep flare down.

Hoods are useful. You just need to learn to use them properly.

[candleman]

Originally Posted by krossk

Mine are stored inverted when in the camera bag and immediately get turned proper upon attachment to the body for use.

absoloutley. i always use a hood when shooting, and when on my back or in storage its inverted

[dcclark]

Originally Posted by maxharvard

The lens hood isn't really designed to help with image quality. it's designed to keep unnecessary light out of the lens. If you are in the woods chances are it would help with keeping branches from hitting the lens and keep flare down.

Hoods are useful. You just need to learn to use them properly.

I think you may have misunderstood me. There are three major reasons that people give for using a lens hood:

1. Reduction of flare and ghosting.
2. Increased contrast.
3. Protecting the front element.

#1 and #2 are certainly related to image quality, which is what I said I was testing (and I didn't find any significant difference).

Now #3... I lost the hood while in the line of duty, when it either caught on a branch, or hit some rock. You could argue that it was indeed protecting my front element, and it may have helped. However, the lens cap and UV filter did much more of a job protecting it -- a branch thwapping the lens can easily reach in and hit the glass, even with a hood. I've used my lens hoodless for many years, in the same nasty backcountry circumstances, and never had any damage -- so I'm guessing that the hood was largely irrelevant.

So my point is, the hood failed at all three of the above items, and that is exactly what I was testing. Add in the inconvenience which I mentioned, and you can see why I won't be using hoods (again).

[anthonybeard]

It could also be argued that having the lens hood on increases your chance of whacking the front of it while you are walking, therefore screwing up the focus assembly or the zoom assembly. Seriously, those newer plasticy nikon lenses cannot take a hard hit to the front without SOMETHING getting out of whack...

Plus, I have found that a really good (as in, you pay out the wazoo) multicoated filter does a LOT more to reduce lens flares and in come cases (like my Hoya HD cir-pl) can increase contrast AND saturation.

There's my 2 cents.