Do I need a lens shade?

[Bill, 70's military B&W]

I'm just getting set up, I bought a Sinar F2 and I look on ebay and I see nice looking lens shades, The theory is good, I read about lens flare, but is the old hat trick (there are two) good enough?
Thanks,
Bill

[jk0592]

What do you mean by

there are two

?

[C. D. Keth]

Lets put it this way: your lens needs to be shaded. Whether that means you buy and use a lens shade or you shade it with your hat or a darkslide is up to you.

[Kirk Gittings]

Dark slide or hat has always been good enough for me.

[Jim Jones]

Too often I've got my hand in the photo when using it to shade lenses. A small round lens hood is convenient, but less efficient than a compendium hood. Rectangular hoods that mount on the front standard instead of on the lens can be improvised from cardboard.

[C. D. Keth]

Another handy thing you can do is to carry matte black 2" paper tape with you. Once you're basically set up, wrap the tape around the front element to make a tape lens hood. You can wrap it as far out (2 or more widths out if you need to) or in as you need to achieve a full-coverage hood.

These things are also good to hold cardboard or black coroplast to flag the lens, they're sold as "multi-clips":

[Brian Ellis]

A hat, hand, dark slide, whatever will keep direct light such as sunlight from striking the lens. But it won't do much on a bright, overcast day or any other situation where the light source is indirect. For that kind of situation a compendium shade works better. That's the theory anyhow. In practice I never liked messing around with a compendium shade so I quit using mine.

[Frank Petronio]

Call me paranoid but if this doesn't work, nothing else will. I just leave it on all the time, adjust it for the lens and scene, takes 20 seconds.

With the F2 all you need are the two bellows clips, a hex rod, and a spare bellows (like your bag bellows or vice-versa) and you can build a nice shade on the spot.

Of course there is nothing wrong with doing it half-assed like these other guys ;-p Film is really cheap and if you get a little flare then it's arty, right?

I'm going to duck now, what is on fire?

[Scott Walker]

+1 on what Frank said. Pretty tough to beat that setup.
It's reasonably inexpensive and can be made to work on most systems.
It is adjustable to all your lenses and dead simple to use.
It is what I use for a lens shade unless I'm running out of time & light and I have to use my hat or jacket or dark slide or whatever is handy.

[Frank Petronio]

I was speaking in jest and I never used anything fancy with my folding cameras - but it is really nice to erase all doubt about shading once you commit to using a bear of a camera. I have a large case that holds the assembled camera upside down and ready to go. Other than weight and bulk, a large heavy camera is the nicest to actually shoot with (solid, rigid, nice controls). You just wouldn't want to carry it far.

With field/folders I would screw in a shallow metal shade, one of the generics from eBay AND use my body, hand, darkslide for additional strategic shading. Just getting myself between the sun and the lens makes the most difference. The shallow metal shade provides some small measure of protection should the lens drop or get set down in the dirt - it also keeps rain, dust, and fingerprints off the front of the lens. If the shade is too deep and you make front movements then you risk vignetting.

When I had Wistas a million years ago they made a flip up compendium shade that was really nice and convenient - you could pull it out as far as necessary, but flip it up out of the way for adjusting the lens. It attached to the top of the front standard. It is still bulky but pretty bullet-proof and effective. I think there is a Chinese version that will fit Tecnikas and maybe Toyo made one too.