Hi,

Just picked up a great used (cheap I think?!..US$625) 35F2 'cron. The last preAspheric model, Canadian #3182xxx. Comes with the clip on hood but no cap.

What are my options for a hood cap? Did these earlier hoods have the slide on hood caps like the current 'crons?

I spoke with a local dealer and he mentioned I could get a new hood/cap combo for about US$75. I wonder if there are other solutions.

Cheers.

-- Simon Wong (drsimonwong@hotmail.com), June 05, 2001

Answers

Simon,

You can get the new cap separately from the new hood. Part No. 14404 I think...

And it fits perfectly on the old hood.

It cost me US$ 9 in Tokyo from an authorized Leica dealer, so I bought a couple of spares. A much better solution than ordering cap/hood pairs from B&H (around $60 each in 1998 if I remember correctly).

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), June 05, 2001.

Sorry, 14043. And those prices are from the summer of 2000. Memory fading :-(

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), June 05, 2001.

Sorry for the piecemeal answer...

The new cap can be a little loose on the new and old hoods, for some reason, though Leica claims it is loose only on the old hood.

You need to be watchful, or the cap has a tendency to drop off occasionally. Yet another little thing to remember with Leica! Anyway, that's why I have spares. Still the convenience of a hood cap is very considerable, when you consider the alternative of a hood that you have to remove/reverse everytime you put on the lens cap.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), June 05, 2001.

Hey Mani,

No problem, it all came out in the end! Thanks for the reference number. I'll see if I can hunt down a dealer who will sell just this item.

Cheers.

-- Simon Wong (drsimonwong@hotmail.com), June 05, 2001.

I made a "cap" using a piece of 1/2" dense foam. I cut the foam into a rectangle that fit snuggly inside the hood and wrapped a piece of black gaffer's tape around the foam to act as a "handle". Works great.

-- David Cuningham (dcunningham@attglobal.net), June 05, 2001.

Isn't someone making a neoprene sock hood cap that comes in several different sizes? That sounds like an ideal cap for someone who's changing lenses a lot and doesn't want to keep rotating caps in the pocket--all the lenses could use the same sock.

-- Michael Darnton (mdarnton@hotmail.com), June 05, 2001.