Lens hood always necessary?

[Jerry van Dijk]

I'm setting out on a trip on foot tomorrow to hopefully get some shots of the European bison that were reintroduced to The Netherlands a few years ago. It will be an overcast day, which led me to the question if I could leave the rather bulky lens hood of my Nikkor 80-400 at home.

In my understanding, a lens hood is mainly used to reduce the chances of flares from bright sunlight, of which there is no chance on an overcast day. However, I read somewhere that the hood also protects from diffuse stray/indirect light that may compromise IQ, which would mean that I have to bring the hood anyway.

Is this true and do you have any experience that IQ is indeed compromised? I'm not a faithful user of lens hoods, but have never noticed any obvious IQ loss apart from flares from bright sunlight.

[Don Lacy]

Lens hood do three things they protect the front element help reduce flare and add contrast I always use them and really would not consider the hood for a 80-400 bulky.

[Marina Scarr]

Hi Jerry:

I used my Canon 400 DO (with and without 1.4TC) without a lens hood for most of the 3 years I owned it and never had an issue. If you photograph much more than birds, you probably want to consider using and taking the hood.

[Ofer Levy]

Hi all, I am not a technical expert in any way however, I never ever use any lens without the hood - both for bird photography and for my professional photography work. The reason for that is simple: lens hood is an integral part of the lens and it is there for a reason. I am sure everyone including the manufacturers would have loved to sell the lens without it but they all keep it. For me it's a good enough justification to use it as recommended.