Customer Reviews

Canon EW-83J Lens Hood for EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It's a shame that Canon does not include this hood with their expensive (non L) lens, but that doesn't lessen the need to own it at all. Canon hoods are plastic. Very nice plastic at that. They are finely engineered, look good, work even better, and protect a lens from fall damage far better than their metal peers.

I complain to Canon about their charging extra for non L hoods every chance I get, but this hood is worth the (cheap) price for what it does, and I would never consider being without one if I planned on taking ANY outdoor images. Buy one when you buy your lens. Use it whenever you shoot outdoors. Get over it's huge size, and be proud of your work at the end of the day.

That's the short and sweet of it. Many people fail to use lens hoods on big lenses because it makes your entire setup look HUGE. Trust me, a 20 or 30D with an EF-S 17-55 IS lens on it will never go unnoticed at a party even without a lens hood. The EW-83J hood adds to the visual impact of your working gear, but also has a very positive effect on your recorded images. Use a hood for what it does for your images, and it won't be long before you lose the shyness of pointing a decidedly non consumer looking camera kit at your photo subjects. This is a well built, fully functional lens hood.

I purchased this hood to work with my 17-40 4L on my Canon 40D. The included hood with the lens is for a full frame sensor and does no good at all when the lense is on the 40D. Because the hood is made for a 17-xx EF-S Lens, it does a much better job of covering the actual viewing angle of the lens. I've used this hood for about a week and I get NO vignetting or Lens Flare what-so ever.

Just a note about the cost, I know this thing is over priced. It does have a lot of design that went into it though. The Math behind how these things work is not as easy as you would think. Also, it's not just "a piece of plastic" it has an anti-glare finish on the inside of the hood that is similar to felt.

Ok, so overall, the hood works REALLY well with the 17-40 4L. (It's kind of a shame it doesn't come with the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS)

First of all, I'm a beginner photographer, and I wasn't totally convinced that I should buy a lens hood. But everywhere I look, people seem to recommend buying one, so I went along with the consensus.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on this Canon lens hood:

0) It was fifty bucks. For a piece of molded plastic lined with felt on the inside. But it was well-engineered piece of plastic. The hood twisted on and off the lens *very* smoothly. I would expect off-brands to not get this feature perfectly right.

1) It makes your camera look bigger and bulkier. This is good if you're try to show off your pro-photographer-ness, bad if you're trying to not draw attention. Note that the hood can be put on the lens backward, which save space when the lens goes into a bag.

2) It blocks light from the sides, as designed. Well, it is most effective at wide angle. At telephoto, the hood leaves the lens wide open on the sides. This is because the hood blocks a constant *field of view*, and the field of view decreases as you zoom in. In fact, the only lens whose hood adapts correctly with the focal length is the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lens. That lens gets *longer* at wide angle and shorter at telephoto.

3) I heard that a lens hood can protect your lens from dirt, and can also take the blow when the lens is dropped. For the former, I think a UV filter is much preferable. For the latter, I hope to never think about it. I just don't trust my lens and camera being dropped, period! I don't believe that a piece of plastic will be enough to reduce the impact.

4) It's really a shame that the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 lens didn't include the hood. It is practically an L-lens in terms of image quality and especially cost. The least Canon could do to keep customers happy is to include the lens hood with the lens.

5) It is *great* for protecting the front lens glass from rain and snow. Some liquid will still get through, but much less. This reduces your cleaning effort, and reduces the chance of having so much water on the lens that you can't take a good picture.

It is well-made. It is made from Japan. It is quite large and took up space in your bag. It keeps flare away from the photo-taking and we do need it with the wide-angle lens especially at 17mm.

If you use a 1.6X crop body (any Digital Rebel, 10D, 20D, 30D, etc.), this is the PERFECT lens hood (it does fit, I own it and use it) - it is longer and narrower than the one that comes with the lens, and offers more effective coverage.

It will ONLY work on the 17-40 when used on a 1.6X crop body (due to the fact the outside edges are not recorded by the camera, if you used this on a camera like a 5D, 1D, 1Ds, etc., it would look like you took a picture thru a hole smaller than the lens).

4 stars because Canon jacks us for a piece of plastic - but it is well-made and works perfectly.

As others have indicated, this hood is a quality-made plastic accessory that is indispensable whenever you're shooting outside in the daytime. As others have also said, it interferes with the built-in flash on the digital Rebels, so you really should have bought a good external flash by now (like the 580EX II Speedlite), so that the elevation of the flash bulb permits for full illumination of the photographic subject.

Addressing the comments where you're recommended to buy a similar product from a non-Canon brand for less money, I'd just like to point out that in addition to the plastic from which this hood is made, there is another material to consider - the flocking.

Flocking is a fine fibrous material which greatly reduces the reflectivity of a surface on which it is adhered. Many after-market hoods made for canon lenses are not flocked (although, in fairness, some are). Without the flocking material, a strong enough light source can generate sufficient reflected light from the inside surface of the hood to degrade your photos' quality (e.g., by interfering with metering).

For the after-market hoods which do have flocking, you may be taking some risk regarding whether the flocking is properly adhered to the inside of the hood or not. If you store your hood reversed on your lens, you're probably scraping the outside surfaces of the lens against the flocking of the hood, potentially scraping some off. Because flocking is essentially made up of ultra-fine fibers and particles, you're asking for trouble with dust on the sensor / in the lens.

While I can't personally attest to the quality of the knock-off hoods, I'm happy to see that despite the somewhat vigorous wear and tear to which my Canon hood has been subjected, the flocking is still well adhered to the inside of the hood, and my sensor and lens remain dust free.

There's nothing wrong with this, aside from canon absolutely ripping you off for a piece of cheap plastic.

Opteka makes a knockoff version.. same shape and it works great, and it's 1/4 the cost.

Until Canon quits charging ridiculous prices for their hoods, buy yourself a cheaper one anytime you can. There's no real difference in the products.

It is ok. It works as what it is designed for. But beware, since the hood is so huge, it will block the light flash from your built-in flash of your camera, unless you have an external flash mounted then it is perfect.
Would not recommend if you do not have external flash mount.

The product is good and useful, just like any other Canon professional grid product. I just find it terrible that Canon doesnt include it in a ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS lens, and make you buy it later.

Come on, Canon... cheap treat to your customers, right.

I am pretty reluctant to buy this hood for my Canon 17-55m f/2.8 due to the price tag. Fortunately, I have Canon 10-22mm and the Canon EW-83E lens hood for this lens. It serves as a work-around for the 17-55 lens. Although it is not optimal for preventing the flare, it works well for the 17-55 lens for the protection purpose. Personally, I consider protection is more important than preventing the flare. So if you have Canon 10-22mm lens and the lens hood EW-83E, you may just use that lens hood for both lenses. I find it pretty convenient, too.

I bought this EW-83J hood since I saw a twenty something dollars sale on Amazon. This is the acceptable price for me. It works well for the 17-55 lens mounted on my Canon Rebel XSI. The hood is longer and narrower than the EW-83E and so it is better to avoid the flare for the 17-55 lens.

Functionally, I should give it 4 or 5 stars. The price tag drops it to 3 stars.