Has anyone built a lens hood or compendium hood?

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I need one that will not vignette down to 47mm on 4x5 as I shoot in extreme lighting conditions. Strong side light late afternoon and directly into it from sunset to late afternoon or early morning just after sunrise.

I was considering getting a 5x5 in bellows and making a frame to hold it using a geared rail to adjust and either attaching to lens or an arca rail that the camera is mounted to. A third option, but not desirable is to attach to front standard.

[neilt3]

I've not made one .
I use slot in filters such as ND grads a lot along with such as a yellow filter etc .
You can buy a hood designed to slot into the filter holder and works fine with the HiTech or Cokin P holder .
https://www.srb-photographic.co.uk/bellows-lens-hoods-1600-c.asp
Self supporting and works well .
You can get a single slot holder if you don't want to use slot in filters as this will help prevent vignetting . I haven't used a 47mm on 5x4 so can't comment on that , works fine with 75mm though .

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Cool. 75 is my main wide angle lens.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Is that fully extended?

If I did my math right, that is about 3.5 inches or so from lens front. I will also be using on 35mm format. The issue there is I go all the way down to 11 mm which is about 117 degree field of view vs 80 for the 75mm on 4x5. I am not sure about how the angles play, but doing the math and laying out on paper, the 117 degree view needs like 14 x 14 inch at 3.5 inch from lens front for 75 mm and 80 degree view needs 7 x 7 at 3.5 inches.

Trying to find a bellows hood that will work both 35mm and 4xr5 with fields of view between 30 - 120 degrees of view. I know it is asking a lot, but barn doors won't work for extreme shots so a bellow set up is it.

[neilt3]

Not fully extended for wide angle , no more than about an inch extended for 75mm .
For the 47mm you might consider getting one of those screw in petal hoods , and if need be , trim it to suit .

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Yeah, I think I need to custom make one. It is a catch 22, needs to be long to shield from the sun when low in sky to front or side, and wide enough to not vignette with wide angles when extended to a reasonable length. Otherwise, its flare city and diaphragm reflections on the grad nd and I have it shielded and sealed against the holder.

[esearing]

They make rubber threaded hoods that collapse and can be trimmed. A big step up ring might allow you to use one of those. The IIIc center filter steps up from 67mm to 87mm but you may even find a ring and hood that goes larger.

[LabRat]

If it's a bright source near the FOV of the IC, the best solution is to have a set of black mat board pieces that can be used as flags, and mount on a compact lightweight light stand, with the cards clipped on... You would set by allowing the shadow from the card to just cover the front of the lens, while checking in the camera that it clears your fov...

These can sometimes be used at some distance from the lens, if you can make the shadow fall just right...

Steve K

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I thought about barn doors, but I really would like a one size fits all approach with just one piece. It will look a bit large on my dslr, but even with that, using an 11-17mm lens, it will need to be quite large if I want to bury the lens deep inside the hood enough for low sun angles. I got on my 4x5 as well as my dslr a very annoying reflection of the diaphragm, that will now take some effort to remove or crop out. If I wasn't using grad nd, I would not have had the problem, but then I would need hdr and the clouds were moving to fast for that and almost a no go with film. so, my sky would have been blown out if i hadn't used the grad nd.

I found a company that can custom make me a leather bellows and having the frames made to attach it to won't be an issue. The only expensive part will be the addition of a couple of rails on the bottom for a gear to extend and retract the hood as well as provide support.

I have considered the rubber lens hoods, but that are not wide enough for the wide angle lenses I use.

[swmcl]

Steven,
If you have strong directional light why not just shade it manually instead of all-around shading ?
I have a compendium that I modified by cutting the plastic molding - I think its a Toyo but I don't know the model #.
My camera is a Shen Hao 5x7 and my lenses go down to the 72mm SA XL.
Although I have the best of intentions I forget to use it often. That's why I mentioned the manual shading.
Cheers,

[Jim Jones]

180375
I've improvised lens hoods from mat board to fit specific lenses. The semi-circular cutout in the back fits around the base of the shutter. The size and depth of the hood can be designed to critically cut off light from just outside the image forming area, or the depth can be reduced to allow for movements.

[Tin Can]

The Sinar Rod system is simple, cheap, adapted easily and any Sinar bellows work.

Page 8 http://www.hotz.be/files/Sinar_Catalogue_2015.pdf

Buy used 'ears' rod and bellows.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

180375
I've improvised lens hoods from mat board to fit specific lenses. The semi-circular cutout in the back fits around the base of the shutter. The size and depth of the hood can be designed to critically cut off light from just outside the image forming area, or the depth can be reduced to allow for movements.

That is interesting. If I went that way, I would make it foldable to fit in a backpack.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

The Sinar Rod system is simple, cheap, adapted easily and any Sinar bellows work.

Page 8 http://www.hotz.be/files/Sinar_Catalogue_2015.pdf

Buy used 'ears' rod and bellows.

Catalogue has a couple of interesting options. The lens hood is supposed to be good down to 40mm, but it doesn't say if it is for 4x5 just digital backs, but the title lists it for 4x5? They have barn doors which I am trying to avoid, but may not be able to.

[Liquid Artist]

Steven,
If you have strong directional light why not just shade it manually instead of all-around shading ?
I have a compendium that I modified by cutting the plastic molding - I think its a Toyo but I don't know the model #.
My camera is a Shen Hao 5x7 and my lenses go down to the 72mm SA XL.
Although I have the best of intentions I forget to use it often. That's why I mentioned the manual shading.
Cheers,

I second this.
When I need a lens hood I just use the dark slide and hold it just far enough so the glass element has a shadow covering it. If there are filter threads on the lens I usually have them partly exposed to the sunlight.