I tend to like folding rubber lens hoods. I'm thinking of buying a 39mm B+W rubber hood for my 35mm M Summicron. Will this hood vignette with this lens? I notice that B&H also has a 46mm B+W hood. I suspect that this will vignette with my 28mm Summicron but does anyone have any experience with hoods on that lens? The supplied hood is rather large and bulky.

Also, I see that KB camera has heliopan rubber hoods, at a considerably higher price than the B+W hoods from B&H. But, KB camera says the Heliopan hoods fold back for wide angle lenses.

Any suggestions on these or other alternative hoods for the 28 and 35 Summicrons?

-- Thomas Herbert (therbert@miami.edu), December 06, 2001

Answers

thinking of buying a 39mm B+W rubber hood for my 35mm M Summicron

Excellent idea. I have one which I bought for my 50mm Summicron, but on a whim I tried it out on the 35mm M Summicron ASPH and it works a treat. Nice deep shade and no vignetting at the corners (although it must be a near thing!)

The B+W hood lives permanently on my 35mm now, with the rectangular plastic hood relegated to spare. The rubber in the hood is firm, but not too stiff so that you cannot fold it back over the lens to protect the barrel.

The only bad news is that you can expect a fair bit of intrusion into the bottom RHS of the viewfinder. I can live with it, but I can imagine Wetzlar Neurotics having fits about it.

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), December 06, 2001.

I've never been tempted to use other than the OEM hoods on M lenses, but if you are good with an X-Acto knife you should be able to make a see-through cut-out to expose the LRH corner of the finder. As to vignetting, the only 2 ways to tell are test shots and placing a ground glass over the film gate with the shutter held open on B.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), December 06, 2001.