A Simple and Compact Homemade Lens Hood

I don't know about you, but size and weight of my photographic equipment is very important to me. When I'm out in the field, I typically carry a camera bag on one shoulder, and a carbon fiber tripod slung across my back like a quiver of arrows. I'm lightlly built, and a heavy bag quickly becomes an onerous burden, so I have put a lot of effort into minimizing the size and weight of my kit, squeezing it all into the smallest (and lightest) camera bag possible. So when I contemplated the purchase of a Canon 70-200mm f/4 telephoto lens, I carefully took note of its length and diameter, so that I could identify the minimum size camera bag it would fit into, along with my camera body and attached 17-50mm lens. But I hadn't taken the lens hood into account, and when the lens arrived, I was rather taken aback by the seemingly behemoth lens hood that came with it. There was no way the lens and hood would fit into the bag I had just bought. The lens hood increased the effective lens diameter quite beyond the bag's ability to accomodate everything that was supposed to go in it. What to do? Even a collapsible rubber hood has a certain amount of bulk, and I would have to screw it on the lens for every use, and unscrew it each time the lens was replaced in the bag, and I also begrudged the extra space the hood would take up in the bag. Fortunately, the camera body has an APS-C sensor, and the lens and hood were designed for a full-frame camera, so it occured to me that I could get away with a significantly smaller hood and stiil avoid any vignetting. So using some black construction paper and some electrical tape, I made a simple slip-on lens hood that serves admirably and adds virtually nothing to the diameter of the lens. Of course, this hood was designed specifically for the Canon lens shown here, but the concept may prove applicable other lenses, depending upon their geometry.

 

Shown above extended and retracted, the hood consists of two layers of black construction paper glued together, with some electrical tape wrapped around the outside for a grip. The hood slides forward on the lens when in use, and slides back onto the lens body for storage. This particular Canon lens has a shallow groove about 7mm wide near the front end, where it's important that the hood should have support, but filling the groove with a double layer of the same construction paper brings it level with the rest of the lens barrel (as shown below). It's important for the hood to be a snug fit over the lens barrel, otherwise it will tend to droop when extended.

 

 

 

Below you can see how it compares in size with the original hood. This paper lens hood is obviously not as robust as a commercially made one, but it's cheap, easy to make, and a smaller one won't be found anywhere.