Customer Reviews

Canon EW83E Lens Hood for EF 16-35mm f/2.8L or other UWA Canon SLR Lenses

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't get the endless stream of complaints about the price of this hood. First, it costs less than thirty Dollars, and not fifty Dollars. No matter, as it is worth either price. Of course, it is plastic. So are many modern guns. Plastic is not a dirty word if it is applied correctly. This hood is very well made, very intricate in design, and a joy to use.

If you only do indoor photography, leave the hood in the bag. If you do outdoor, or nightime photography, this hood will save your bacon more often then not. It is a steal in terms of what it will do for you. If you have ever dropped an SLR with a good sized lens, you know that they tend to hit the ground lens first. This plastic lens hood not only took the impact of a three foot drop, but it survived intact, and the 10-22 mm S lens it was attached to was untouched. In the past, a metal lens hood would take the impact and die, and the lens usually suffered some damage as well. Canon hoods are awesome, and I prefer plastic over metal when it is protecting a lens that took weeks of saving to afford.

One more important point. If you are interested in a lens hood, you care about details. Buy the best protective UV filters that you can afford for all of your lenses. Canon filters are mostly consumer junk. Most filters are junk for that matter. Always buy a filter that is multi-coated on both surfaces, and for a wide ange lens (or zoom), buy a thin multi-coated filter. Rather than reinvent the wheel here, I suggest that you visit the Hoya website for a fine tutorial on filter tech. Hoya Pro 1 super multi coated filters are affordable, and very fine in quality. There are better filters out there, but the Hoya site has a great tutorial. Read it, and be an informed consumer.

Hoods offer several benefits to the photographer. Primarily the hood shades the lens from stray light that may result in an unwanted discoloration or hazing of the image, or the appearance of lens flare. Shading your lens helps improve contrast and image quality. A hood is not required to eliminate these problems, as any item used to shade the lens will provide the same protection from stray light. The hood is convenient in that it is built to offer protection while ensuring that it will not inadvertently find its way into your image.

Photographers often state the protective abilities of a hood as a reason to have one. This hood being a solid petal shaped one and three quarters inch long offers limited protection from keeping moisture and wind blown debris off the from lens element. When in place, the hood can protect the lens from impacting solid objects. Being so shallow and petal shaped, even this type of protection is limited. Even if the protection is limited, replacing a damaged hood is usually cheaper than repairing an expensive L lens.

This hood is manufactured for the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM ultra wide angle zoom and Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM ultra wide angle zoom; which normally comes included with these lenses when sold new. There is no need to buy one for the L series lenses as Amazon often suggests.

Since the hood is wider than the lens; it can easily be stored attached in a reverse position. This doesn't add to the length of the lens, but does make it wider by about an inch. An inch may not seem like a lot, but in a tightly packed camera bag, it is huge. This lens isn't unusually wide so the extra inch may not be a problem.

While the protective benefits exist, they are secondary and limited. I find the impact the hood has on my image quality to be the more convincing reason to use a hood. Considering the impact on image quality and the low cost as compared to my other camera equipment (except for a lens case), purchasing a hood is money well spent.

PROS:
Improves contrast and image quality
Reduces lens flare problems
Offers limited protection to the lens

CONS:
Takes up more space in your camera bag to store with the lens

Using either on EF 16-35mm lenses or EF-S 10-22mm lenses (on 20D or Rebel bodies with 1.6x crop factor) this hood helps to eliminate (I mean reduce a lot) the flare on sunny days or certain lightning conditions..... highly recommended for those who like to shot at the lower end (16mm) of these lenses.

I'm using this hood for the Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens on a 20D. It's a bit shocking how big this hood is until you realize it's really necessary for the very wide field of view. On the Canon 20D, the lens is equivalent to the EF 16-35mm f2.8, only it's f3.5-4.5. Bottom line is that it does the trick and is made to the same good quality as the rest of Canon's stuff.

I already had this lens shade as it came with my 16-35mm L lens. If you purchase the 10-22mm zoom (which does not come with a shade), it covers the same general angle of view, so it's easy to switch to the lens you are using, depending on full frame use or APS format.

Realistically, such wide-angle zooms are prone to flare in certain conditions, so the shade can help--a little. It also can take a hit from the side, as others have said. It does make stuffing it into a padded Domke insert much tougher. Best to take it off lens and put it in camera bag pocket. Hoya HMC filters are very effective, as others said.

As for the lens shade attracting attention, it's the whole package of black camera and big lens that does it, not the shade. Worse is carrying around those cream-colored Canon teles. That shouts, "Pro Photographer! Deny him access!"

This is an expensive item but any help in reducing flare is a plus to your photos. I have a lens hood for all my lenses. This also helps protect if you bang your lens against something. After spending nearly a thousand dollars on the lens, what's another $33.00.

There's little more to say....great item, almost a "must have", but forty bucks for a half ounce of plastic is absolutely criminal.

First of all, this particular lens hood is "recommended" for several different lenses. I suspect that is why some people find that it is "visible" when looking through the viewfinder at widest angle settings, while others do not. I purchased this for the Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens (used on an EOS 50D) after reading lots of positive reviews. I am a firm believer in the philosophy of always shooting with a lens hood in order to add more protection to the front of the lens, as well as to protect against glare from peripheral light sources.

This hood fit the 10-22mm lens perfectly and is snug. It can be reversed and mounted on the lens for storage, just as with other Canon lens hoods. While it's usable on several Canon lenses, its flower petal seems to be sized for the 10-22mm lens. I say this because if you experiment with a 1/8th inch tab projecting in to the viewing angle of the lens when set at 10mm, you'll see the tab paint out a perfect rectangle in the viewfinder as you trace the petal contour. (i.e. the petal is JUST out of sight at 10mm)

The large 77mm front of this lens is hungry to capture stray light from any source, and this hood does a good job blocking some of that unwanted light. I noticed less glare on outdoor shots right away.

As claimed in other reviews, this lens hood does have a large diameter. It's large petals (top and bottom) are 4.25" diameter, while its small petals (left and right) are a whopping 4.75" diameter. The 10-22mm lens is 3.25" in diameter where the hood attaches. However, this "oversizing" of the hood is intentional and if you look at its molding, you can see that the designers took every possible opportunity to step and flare the petals outward, in order to allow projecting the petals farther in front of the lens (and blocking more peripheral light) without becoming a regular unwanted subject in your photo's shot at 10mm.

This hood won't fit in to any of my lens cases while attached to the lens. I'll live with that for now, but will look to upsize a couple of my cases to remove the step of adding/removing this hood between shooting and lens storage. I don't mind the extra step, but feel like the less one has to handle any lens, the less likely it will be to get dropped. For that reason, I always mount the lens first, and THEN the hood. Likewise in reverse, always remove the hood while the lens is on the camera, and then remove the lens and move it directly to its case.

I'd strongly recommend this lens hood for the EF-S 10-22mm lens. It's cheap insurance and does a good job with reducing glare.

Pros:
- Reduces flare and ghosting when shooting in bright light.
- Helps protect your lens from dirt and scratches.
- Somewhat protects the lens in case of a fall. Better to break the hood than the front element.
- Makes you look more like you know what you are doing and helps to keep others from carelessly walking in front of you.

Cons:
- Will increase lens movement in windy situations, kind of like a sail on a boat.
- Takes up more room in your bag, even when reversed they still add to the diameter of the lens.
- People take more notice of you, will help to blow your cover if you are trying to keep a low profile.

I always use a lens hood on my camera because they're cheaper to replace than a damaged lens should you bump into something. This hood works fine, but I gave it three stars for two reasons: first, it's a pretty flimsy piece of black plastic. You can buy cheaper ones but they weren't offered on Amazon at the time I bought the 10-22 mm lens. Second, the D30 camera and hood design have a flaw: you have to remove the lens hood when using the on-camera flash or it throws a shadow on your subject.