I have just begun learning about my new/old LF camera and lenses. I have an Ektar 127 and 203, both coated. With my 35mm Nikon I am fairly religious about using lens hoods for all of my lenses. With these older lenses, I would think that a lens hood would be even more important. Yet I seldom (to date as a beginner anyway) see much mention of lens hoods for LF. Am I missing something here? If it would be good to use lens hoods, where might I get them and what should I look for?

Would also like to say thanks very much for people spending the time to answer this and a couple of my other questions. I has been very helpful!

-- Roger Rouch (rrouch@msn.com), June 26, 1999

Answers

View cameras have front and back movements. To properly shield a lens, without vignetting an adjustable compendium is used.

If you use a lens hood and do movements you will vignette.

-- bob salomon (bobsalomon@mindspring.com), June 26, 1999.

Compendium type hoods work well but it's an extra piece of gear to carry. I wear a hat when I'm out making landscape images and my hat makes a great lens hood. So with a hat you get dual duty, it keeps the sun off your face and makes a great lens hood. Does take a little practice or you can alse get vignetting with the hat.

-- Ron Lawrence (leica@interpath.com), June 27, 1999.

I had the same lenses on my Graphic View II, later remounted them and used them on a Wista. I found Series VI slip on rings for both (1 5/8" for the 127 -- 1 1/2" for the 203) and used screw-in metal hoods that extended about 1 1/2" past the front of the lens. Never had any vignetting problems. The filters went right in at the base of the hood. I dont think you will find any metric sized rings to fit, since there are too few threads exposed in front of the front lens element to allow them to seat. You will need the slip on type, or a bellows type shade that mounts on the camera itself.

-- Tony Brent (ajbrent@mich.com), June 27, 1999.

Roger, The compendium is certainly the best solution since you can position it while looking at the ground glass for optimum shading, and there are many lightweight ones on the market. That said, I have never owned one. On sunny days, I use the dark slide to shade the lens. It works well and I'm always sure I pulled it! The shadow of the slide (or whatever you use to shade your lens) should just cover the front element. That way you ensure that you are not vignetting, even at extreme movements. This works well for general field work, as usually it is only the sun (or a source from a single direction) that presents a danger of flare. If you have a very flary (I like the sound of that) lens, you could have problems with general flaring from the bright sky even on cloudy days. In this case, it is nice to position the shade just outside the picture area to ensure that as much extra light as possible is prevented from entering the lens. This means you'll have to watch the ground glass. For cases where I need more accurate shading I also have a nifty, and very lightweight spring-type filter holder from Voss (I bought it from Calumet) which has adjustable barn doors on it. It is not quite as efficient as a compendium bellows, having only two shading surfaces but it's the next best thing and it's extremely packable (and cheap). With this you can position the doors while watching the ground glass to achieve optimum shading, and, it hold 3" filters to boot. It comes with me in my field kit. Hope this helps, ;^D)

-- Doremus Scudder (ScudderLandreth@compuserve.com), June 27, 1999.

The Lee lens hood and filter system works well and the hood is relatively inexpensive by large format hood standards (around $100 as I recall). I have had some vignetting problems when using the hood with my 90 mm lens. I understand that Lee has now come out with a wide angle adapter ring to deal with this problem but I haven't bought one yet so I don't know how well it works. I also used to own and use the Linhof compendium lens hood. It also worked very well but was much more expensive than the Lee hood. If you would like more information about the Lee system, send me an e mail. Brian

-- Brian Ellis (beellis@gte.net), June 27, 1999.

I also use Lee. The wide-angle adapters are fabulous, even with my widest of wide. I also have the wide hood now too. I use it most of the time, though it is a bit bigger and bulkier. I use it on 4X5 (and even lower in those horrid little formats) through 12X20 too. I have many adapters now, and I leave them on my lenses for convenience and speed. The best way to make sure there is no vignetting with ANY hood of any brand is to look through from the front once everything is set up to make sure you can see, unobstructed, all four corners and all four sides. I just give a quick 360 degree look-see and shoot. With Lee you can bend and manipulate the hood until it doesn't cut into the picture (even if the hood is distorted). Lee will take a tracing from any lens and make you a nice little adapter for the lenses that don't have threads, have damaged threads, or just can't accept a standard adapter. I will never shoot hoodless again.

-- Rob Tucher (rtphotodoc@juno.com), June 28, 1999.

I go along with the hat and darkslide guys, have never used a hood on my lf stuff except when I am shooting indoors with flash and then I use a homemade light cardboard hood I made myself and painted flat black, works great and is very cheap. Pat

-- pat j. krentz (krentz@cci-29palms.com), June 30, 1999.

Steve Grimes also makes adapter rings for lenses that have diameters for which Lee doesn't make a standard adapter. He made one for my 150 mm G Claron, which has a weird filter diameter. He charged about $70 as I recall. I don't know how that compares with Lee's prices for special order adapters.

-- Brian Ellis (beellis@gte.net), July 03, 1999.