Lens Hood Alternative to Compendium

[robertrose]

If this has been discussed before my apologies.

I tried to find a compendium hood for my Toyo-Field camera; new are very expensive and used are hard to find. The usual available model is for the studio Toyo-View camera.

I have found that the Lee universal hood is an excellent alternative. It is light weight, and is suspended from an adapter attached to the lens. The trick is to get an adapter with thread size that matches your lens filter size. The rings are pricey, but I found that less expensive rings from The Filter Dude work just fine and are of high quality.

There are two types of adapter: regular and wide angle. They will both work on any LF lens with filter threads on the forward element. The regular adapter has a second female thread for a polarizer if you want that, while the wide angle moves everything a few millimeters closer to the lens; might be enough to prevent some vignetting.

If you have multiple lenses, then (unless you are worried about vignetting) consider getting an adapter for the largest thread and look for step-up rings for the smaller lenses.

The Lee Universal Hood takes the adapter ring, and allows use of 100mm (4") filters at the front of the hood. If you want to use multiple filters, or have the filters closer to the lens, check out the filter holder, which can attach to the back of the hood. If you are not going to use filters, then the filter holder (and Foundation Kit) is not needed. There are several helpful videos at the Lee website.

[vinny]

It has been discussed a bit and a compendium shade for view cameras won't work on slr's so the lee is a great thing. All of my lenses (which aren't 82mm) have step up rings to 82mm so i only need one ring for the lee hood. Step up rings are dirt cheap.

There are other threads on the forum with sources for lee compatible rings on ebay for prices less than the filter dude. It seems the filter dude doesn't sell many sizes.

[mike rosenlof]

I usually shade my lens with the darkslide after I've pulled it out.

[vinny]

I usually shade my lens with the darkslide after I've pulled it out.

Does that darkslide keep rain/snow off the lens while setting up the shot?
I shoot a lot in backlight. I can't hold a darkslide while composing/focussing a shot where sunrays are hitting the glass causing horrible flare on my single coated lenses. I've also photographed the edges of my darkslide when using your method.