Super telephoto lens cap? Canon should be ashamed!

[Frank Kolwicz]

Those ridiculous leather hoods that are so inconvenient to use are no substitute for a real lens cap, like all the non-super lenses come with.

In the field I often have to hurry-up and cover the front of the lens when a cloud of dust envelopes me and the lens. Maybe one dusting won't hurt anything, but this happens repeatedly, even when I practice dust avoidance by trying to always be upwind of the source and then it will eventually have to be cleaned - with great care as dust is extremely abrasive.

So, Canon can't be bothered to provide a $.59 plastic item to fit snugly over the big end of a 600/4's rigid lens hood, but thanks to Pyrex for providing a substitute: there's a Pyrex glass storage container that has a perfect gray plastic cover from my local BiMart for a couple of bucks, with a container for free. It's a tight fit, but that's better than the alternative.

For older 500/4.5s it's a little trickier: Pyrex also makes a smaller storage container that has a red cover that's a little to large to fit, but, with the help of my local hardware store guy we came up with a drive belt from a vacuum cleaner that makes up the gap. The black rubber drive belt fits snugly on the big end of the rigid lens hood and then the Pyrex cover fits that perfectly. Comes off easily enough, but doesn't come off when you carry or travel with the lens out of the box.

Shame on Canon for making me go through this rigamarole instead of providing a 2 buck item for a $10,000 lens.

[Bob Atkins]

If you think that's bad you should try pricing a new lens hood for one of the supertelephotos. You'd better be sitting down when you find the price!

For a supertelephoto cap try the Lenscoat Hoodie

[KeithB]

I can't understand why a lot of the Olympic photographers are using lens hoods when inside a gymnasium. It seems to me that flare is not an issue in that case.

[Bob Atkins]

I guess it never hurts to use a hood. It also provides some physical protection for the front element. It's probably mostly habit though!

[Frank Kolwicz]

Regarding the lens hood: I have personal experience that *always* using a hood is protection for the whole mechanism. In that case it was a plastic hood on a 28/80L and breaking the hood when dropped may well have saved the lens.

I also make it a practice to keep a lens cap on when carrying a camera and  not actively working with it. That may have prevented serious scratches on the lens when dropped in gravel that time.