Lens hood advice...

[rivercityrocker]

Hi there! I'm new to the forum and new to rangefinder photography as well. I've written more than 20 books about Nikon DSLRs and lenses, but when it comes to the Leica system I feel like a noob.

So I picked up a used Leica M8 with a CV 28mm f/2 Ultron, then I went out and bought a Zeiss 50mm f/2 Planar and CV 35mm f/1.4 Nokton. I'm pretty happy with all of my purchases so far.

So anyway...

I'm pretty rough with my cameras. I'm a pro, my camera is my tool. I don't throw them around or anything, but they do get banged around while they're being used. My lens hoods have saved my Nikon lenses hundreds of times.

I was looking at hoods for my lenses. Now I don't really want to spend a premium on the hoods. The 28mm has a threaded hood, I'm looking at replacing that with a vented one. No problemo. The 35 Nokt and the Zeiss 50 both have bayonet mounts, but I have found some vented hoods in a 43mm thread mount. 5 bucks a pop. My question is, will these hoods work properly if I just thread them in? Will they vignette? Is it a bad idea?

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience on this?

Thanks!
Denny

 

[ferider]

Hi Denny,

welcome to the forum.

As I still use film, I can only comment on full frame use of your lenses. Your M8 sensor is smaller, I will let others comment on the M8 specifically. But maybe you will upgrade to an M9 at some point, or want to use your lenses on film, so this might still be relevant for you:

Generic 43mm and 46mm screw-in hoods do vignette with the 35 Nokton and 28 Ultron, respectively, in particular if you use filters. The following are possible solutions:

1) The Nokton and the Planar have the same hood bayonet, so you need to buy only one hood for both lenses.

2) The Voigtlander LH6 and LH5 hoods are both great and do not vignette on the 35 Nokton. Not cheap, however, and kind of big. I now use a 3D printed hood that one of our members here designed last year; it's great, very effective, made out of hard rubber, and cheaper than the Voigtlander hoods. You can order it here: http://www.shapeways.com/model/764151/ver-1-vc-35-1-4-amp-40-1-4-compact-hood.html (no connection to the seller other than being a happy user).

3) Tricky to find a good and bigger than stock non-vignetting 46mm hood for the 28 Ultron. Then again, it's very flare resistant. If you want a bigger hood, the best I found was the 46mm RF hood from japanexposures.com. Not cheap though.

Best,

Roland.

 

[rivercityrocker]

Thanks!

The Ultron comes with a short screw-in hood, so I guess I'll just stick with that for now.

Looks like there's no cheap way out. I guess I'll just buy the specific hoods for each. One lens is chrome and the other is black and I;d like them to match. Since I already spent a few thousand bucks what another $150 or so in the grand scheme of things?