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Using lens hoods in cold weather could be ruining your photos

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I typically tend to not venture out with my camera when it’s that cold, but it has been known to happen from time to time. One thing I hadn’t experienced when I had been shooting in the cold, though, is random lens softness. So, this video from Steve Perry surprised me a little. He noticed that he was getting very soft images on his Nikon Z9 when shooting wildlife out in cold (single digit °F) temperatures.

And this isn’t just a Nikon issue, either. His wife was having the same problem with her Canon EOS R5. During further testing, he added a Sony body into the mix and that one, too, was soft. Very soft. He was getting the same results with them all regardless of whether it was a Nikon, Canon or Sony camera and lens combo. It turns out that it might actually be a heat issue.

I designed my own 3D printed lens hoods because Nikon’s suck

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My dad was into photography. He was a professor at Illinois in Speech and Hearing Science and did a lot of research on cadavers. He did a lot of photography as part of his research, and also enjoyed photography outside work. He had a darkroom in his lab and I had access to that while I was in town.

I always kept a camera or two on hand but was not dedicated enough to build a darkroom in the house. I didn’t really do much with photography after graduating from college. As computers advanced through the years and image editing began to mature, it became clear that the digital darkroom would become a thing. I inherited my dad’s Nikon F4 and a few lenses when he died, so that kind of put me on the Nikon side of the fence.

A funny lens hood to kill all window reflections

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Have you ever wanted to shoot out of a window, but the reflections ruin the shot?  Introducing the Haida super wide-angle silicone lens hood (Amazon, B&H).

As the name describes, this is a silicone hood for your lens. It’s has a designed contort to seal around a window to cut out unwanted reflections. It comes in two sizes, One for 50-70mm lens and another for 70-90mm lens. Most of my lenses are on the larger side, so I opted for the 70-90mm version.

The large hood is 210mm wide and is designed to stretch over your lens to hold in place. You can even do this while the lens is mounted. Check the photo above.

Photographers are going crazy over Universal Lens Hood; over $170,000 raised on Kickstarter

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Judging from a recent poll we shared here on DIYP, most photographers use their lens hood all the time. So it’s probably no wonder that they went crazy over a hood that can fit every lens. Universal Lens Hood is just has raised over $170,000 on Kickstarter so far, and there are 20 days still left to go.

What are lens hoods really for and how do you use them?

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If you listen to folks on Facebook, you might think that lens hoods are designed as some form of mystical lens protection. They’re often touted as the alternative to UV filters as a way to defend your lens against the evils of the world that might otherwise turn it to glass dust.

But, no, their primary function is actually to flag stray light from entering into your lens and causing flare. In this video from Adorama TV, photographer David Bergman talks about lens hoods, when you might want to use one and when you might not.

Watch this hockey photographer’s lens hood fall onto the ice and get mistaken for a puck

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Hockey is a fast-paced, hard-hitting game where peripheral vision is key to getting the puck where it needs to be. But what happens when what a player goes for a black object on the ice that doesn’t end up being the puck?

Well, if you’re Sean Backman of the Ontario Reign from the American Hockey League, you end up briefly handling a lens hood that was knocked off a photographer’s lens when your team tries to dump the puck behind the net.

Download Your Very Own Free DIY Printable Lens Hood Template

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Start your weekend off the right way by taking advantage of this sweet website that offers printable templates you can use to whip up your own collection of lens hoods. We covered LensHoods.co.uk way back in 2006  and the free service is still going strong. In fact, they’ve added new templates and even launced a sister site, Lenshoods.com, which is “optimized for digital SLRs with 1.5x and 1.6x crop sensors.” Be sure to swing by both websites and grab your templates so you’ll never find yourself without a lens hood. Templates are available for Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina lenses.

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