why one would use the 12526 square hood.
why one would use the 12526 square hood.
Why would you ever want to do a thing like that?......The original hood works fine, looks good...
Hi Gregory,
There are 2 reasons why you might want to use the square 12526 hood. The first is functional; it resists flare better than the original vented, round hood -- even the filter being screwed in toward the front of the original hood could be problematic. The second reason is functional as well, and it invovles filter use. I believe it was Rich here on RFF that pioneered this, but Maddoc and I followed him and tweaked his method a bit in the details. It is very easy to fit a 39mm or less common 37mm filter directly in front of the front lens element and hold it in place with a rubber O ring that has been glued to the inside square of the 12526 hood.
Rich said to use a 37mm filter, but a 39mm worked for me, too. I did the easiest thing; I went to my local hardware store and bought a black rubber O ring and used epoxy to glue it. A few dabs did it. No big deal. It holds the 39 filter in nicely. The 37mm filter is a deeper, tighter fit. For that you need a thicker O ring, but it is the same basic design. Just make sure the O ring is not so thick that it touches the outside rim of the GLASS in the filter --- I believe you'd get vignetting.
It is nice if you like to protect your lenses with UV filters -- I do. It is much faster and easier to change filters with this method than unscrewing the original hood. Also 39mm filters are easier to find than series 7 filters.
If the 12526 hood ever starts to turn, my solution was to use very thin black hair elastics in the groove where the hood clips -- the kind a dancer uses. I bought 250 in a small pack for $1.50 and I used only 1 in a year -- so they last
🙂 No swiveling at all, I had a steady hood from that point.
I guess I could add a third reason, Gregory. An aesthetic reason: many prefer the look of square hoods to the circular -- I know that I do.
The only downside to this method --- the ergonomics of aperture selection is what I would call "tight".
Respectfully,
Thomas
