New Lens Hood for Voigtlander 35mm 1.4

If you are a Voigtlander 35mm 1.4 "wide open" ND filter, street kind of guy... this is your hood.!

UPDATE:  I was just told this hood also fit well on the Zeiss 35mm C-Biogon f2.8

UPDATE:  M8 users - this hood is now also available for Zeiss 28mm 2.8 Biogon Click here.

Im one of those guys who DO believe in the magic effect of Lens Hoods, as far as Im concerned, any optical element (read my lens) works best when shielded from as much stray light as possible.  When out shooting on the street it can be hard to remember to shield the lens everytime we turn into the light a bit. 

The Voigtlander nokton 35mm 1.4 have a really nice look wide open which I happen to love,  however that dinky little excuse for a lens-hood, well, lets just say,  I don't love the official hood one bit. 

WARNING - if you don't know what a Lens Hood is for, this is not a product for you, stop reading now.

This is post references a old post from my first experiments The original post can be found here.

What do a hood do.?
Any piece of glass will scatter light, so generally the only light we want to hit our lenses is the light we want to create a picture from.  Direct light become a problem when photographing into the sun,  hold your camera in the hand and turn around, notice the parts where the sun can hit your lens, that light hitting the lens _will_ to some degree scatter and reduce contrast in your pictures by slightly increasing the exposure in the shadows.. result is flare or less deep shadows.   Solution is typically either a lens-hood or holding a hand over the lens. 

The problem with the Voigtlander 35mm 1.4 is that the hood is a tiny narrow ring, a round ring can never give optimal shadow for a rectangular image.  

So what's a guy to do.?   I started experimenting with a better hood about a year ago,  first I designed a CAD file for the bayonet mount for the lens hood, then added 3:2  rectangle box and finally printed hard-copy on a 3D printer, then started to remove material from the long hood until it no longer created vignetting in my images..   After that i have been massaging the hood design and have been sporting the prototypes on my rangefinders the last year.  First it was a straight box,  but its hard to get my fingers to the aperature ring.. (though who want to step it down anyway right.?)  still I cut the corners off the box, rouded the shapes and so on.. by now the CAD file is quite complex.

This shot shows some of the features quite well,  notice the left corner, it is thinner and open in the back, so that you can focus, I even cut out the ring itself so you almost do not see the hood on the lens. also notive the round cylinder, it is an extra 5mm tall to make room for your ND or Polarizer filter.

In this shot you can see how the hood ring is cut entirely in the corner for the rangefinder, you can see as far to the right as you would with a naked lens.

 

Finally this week, I got a stack of these printed up,  3D printed on a FDM printer. 

How strong are these..?   I have lifted my M9 with it and handled it repeatedly by the hood, though I don't really recomend doing that. :-)   The hood is a strong, but it is made thin enough that it should crack before your lens break,  it is meant to flex or break if you drop the camera on the lens, I have always used lens-hoods as "bumpers" for my lenses, and this one is no exception.

 

UPDATE:  About lenscaps,  the hood is very tight, the point is to make effective shade from direct light sources, and at the same time keep the camera comfortable when using it on the street.  A side effect of this is that you need to remove the hood to put a cap on the lens, personally I am a filter guy and have no idea where my lens-caps are, I simple leave the hood on to protect from physical impact.

Just noticed Chad Tobin posted a review of the 35mm nokton hood, must appriciated, click here to read

The hoods are available today. They are $40 mailed in the USA, email me if you are interested in one of these. They are printed in my office from ABS plastic.

UPDATE:  I was just told this hood also fit well on the Zeiss 35mm C-Biogon f2.8
UPDATE:  M8 users - this hood is now also available for Zeiss 28mm 2.8 Biogon Click here.

 

 

Comments

[ArtZ]

I have tested the hood on a CV Nokton 35/1.4 (standard version, no SC) and on a Zeiss Biogon 2/35 ZM.

Even if the Nokton and the Biogon hoods are interchangeable, Bo's hood gets bowed on the Biogon. I suspect a slightly bigger hood mount on the Biogon.

Now, the great thing is Bo's hood DOES work! I took some pictures yesterday at Bastille Opera House on a sunny at 7:30 PM (5:30 PM solar time) under a difficult light. Bastille Opera House has a lot of glass which makes a lot of reflections under that lighting.

I took 10 pictures of 5 different scenes (two pictures for each scene): I took the first picture using the original Voigtländer hood and the second one using Bo's hood. Then I took the second scene in the same order and so on.

The results: I got flare in scenes three and four on pictures taken using the Voigtländer hood but no flare on pictures taken with Bo's hood. Contrast seems to be improved but it's difficult to say on those pictures.

I will proceed to do some more tests in the following days, especially concerning contrast.

Even if I carry my camera on my shoulder capless, I put the lens cap when I place the camera into the camera bag. My only rant about Bo's hood would be you need to remove the hood to place the cap. I think a similar lens cap to the Tri-Elmar 16-18-21 or Summilux-M 35/1.4 would make me a really happy man ;-)

ArtZ

[Coffee]

I want to get this hood from you, but what's your email?

[Matt]

hi Bo, just got this lens to pair with my M8 and love not only the look of the lens but the practical aspect of filtering out unwanted flare. How can I order one of these?

[Chris]

Hi Bo, from what I gather this hood can be used on a ZM 50/2 Planar. I would like to have one, but I also could not find your address.
Could you contact me?

[Douglas]

I would like to order a hood, but I can't find your email. Please contact me.

[Ben]

How can I order a hood?

[Victor Cho]

How can I order you lens hood that I will use it on the zeiss ZM 50mm f2?