Lens Hoods

[Christopher Barrett]

I'm really kind of baffled (pun?) by the hoods manufactured for still cameras. I have the Arca Compendium and the Lee WA Hood. I also use an Arriflex Mattebox on my cine cameras.

First, my gripes with the Lee design: The Self-Supporting flexible bellows always lose their stiffness and then just become flacid and floppy. I've gone through maybe 4 or 5 over the years. Oh well... Also, if you want to use filters, then they have this open filter slot design... so any stray lot bouncing down into there can illuminate the front of your lens and cause it to reflect onto the filter (and then be superimposed on the image).

Compendium Hoods: don't generally have filter accommodation and if they do it's out in front where the filter could be in direct sunlight. Doesn't seem like a good idea.

My Arri Mattebox has filter trays that encloses the filter in black metal and no light gets down in there. I guess what I'd really love is a small cine-style mattebox for my still cameras. Hmm.

How do you handle situations where you need filtration but want to shade the lens (which I always do)???

[Daniel Stone]

I just sold my LEE hood and have transitioned to using a Linhof compendium hood with screw-in glass filters(so no more ND grads)
82mm filters for everything now(across all my "systems"(35mm,SL66,GX680,LF), with step-up rings for the smaller lenses/formats

works for me, but I don't do motion work, just stills

See if you can use your Arca compendium on your new 4x10, then you'll be set

[gregmo]

The majority of my images are shot before sunrise or after sunset. So, I typically dont shade the lens during shooting, but at times I have needed to, I've used the dark slide from the film holder to shade the lens from the sun.

[vinny]

I use the lee hood with filter slots. Never had one go bad. I had the stray light with a piece of black fabric. Never had a problem with stray light. Never.
Yes, a mini arri mb would be nice.

[Christopher Barrett]

I've got a new Lee Hood on the way to replace my saggy one. I reckon I'll just get some black fabric and elastic and piece together a "nun's knickers" to wrap the filter slots. Thanks for the input. The Chamonix is somewhere between China and Chicago and the new glass is all en route from various vendors. Christmas in the Fall!

[neil poulsen]

One option is to find a Xenophon (sic?) behind the lens filter holder for 4", gel filters.

As for a compendium bellows, I have an old-style Arca lenshood. Best that I've seen. It has four adjustable blades to shade right down to the edge of the format.

[Christopher Barrett]

This is how we used to do rear filter at HB, worked great.

[Drew Wiley]

I suspect there is (or was) more than one kind of Lee hood. Mine have held up quite well. But on the Sinar, I simply use the clip and rod adapter which allows you to
use a spare bellows as a compendium.

[jcoldslabs]

The compendium shade for the Calumet C-1 has a slide-in filter slot or "drawer" at the rear nearest the lens. Like most things Calumet it is beastly and heavy but works very well.

Jonathan

[David A. Goldfarb]

The Linhof compendium has the filter slot in back with an option for masking blades in front.

Sinar has frames that hold a regular 4x5" bellows and a swing-away filter holder that can go between the lens and the bellows shade.

With the Linhof compendium, you could screw glass filters onto the lens or use Linhof drop-in filters with the appropriate holder and position the rear standard of the shade far enough back so the front cell of the lens and filter are recessed into the shade.

For ultrawide lenses where there's no way to put a filter in front of the lens without vignetting, I've used the same rear-filter method as above in post #7, epoxied to the lensboard.