view hood worth it ?

[tautatis]

Not useful or need - additional clutter and unnecessary weight. Just use dark cloth. I have had a Shen Hao for almost 10 years now and works fine wothout one.

Tautatis

[jp]

Looks like the hood on my pre-anniversary speed graphic. I use it instead of a dark cloth, but I prefer the metal folding hood on my later speed graphic.

[Brian Ellis]

I used an Ebony hood on an Ebony camera. I didn't like it much. It reduced the pleasure of the large format experience for me because it felt more like I was looking through the viewfinder of a small camera than the ground glass of a larger one. I also often couldn't see the entire image on the screen from one position, I had to move around and see different parts. That may have been a function of that particular hood rather than hoods in general, I don't know because that's the only one I've used.

I too don't care for the old "horse blanket" type dark cloths. They're bulky, something of a pain to put on and take off, and in a wind they're impossible. The tube designs such as the BTZS hood was for me a good compromise. But obviously this is an area of PP.

[IanG]

Not useful or need - additional clutter and unnecessary weight. Just use dark cloth. I have had a Shen Hao for almost 10 years now and works fine wothout one.

Tautatis

Try using a dark-cloth when you're working with a hand-held LF camera. This is where a hood works very much better,

Ian

[Noah A]

I have one that came with my Wista 45vx.

At least with the Wista fresnel/gg, it's great with a 210/5.6, pretty good with a 150/5.6, kind of usable with a 110xl and unusable with an 80xl.

The main thing is that it protects the groundglass. Other than that I could live without it.

[Joseph Dickerson]

I use the Shen Hao folding hood, I bought it mostly to protect the GG, and rather like it.

The Shen Hao hood, don't know if the one you found is the same, hinges/swings to allow access to the GG for a loupe. I use +6 diopter glasses instead of a loupe so the combination works pretty well with or without a focusing cloth. As Noah pointed out it's better with longer/brighter lenses.

Try Badger Graphic Sales for a price comparison.

JD