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Since yesterday, I have some thought about metal lenshoods.  As you all know Leica has improved a few regular lenses , like the summicron 35 mm asph, and fitted them with metal hoods. They are supposed to be better than the plastic ones they had. 

 

Yesterday my camera smasched into the ground leaving the metal hood on the lens. A full impact on the lenshood drove the lenshood over the lens and leaving it there unable to get it off. The lens will be sent into repair at Will van Manen's  and I hope he can get it working propperly again.

 

I know the " canadian " summicron originally had a plastic hood. If this plastic smasches, the hood breaks and in this way absorbs the energy of the blow. A metal hood bends thus absorbing the blow and deforms over the lens, in this case, and creates another problem: " How do I get the hood seperated from the lens without using to much force scratching the lens or other things. 

 

So maybe in hindsight. A plastic hood has some advantages too?

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Edited by Paulus
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The front of lenshood falls off after trying to undo it from the lens. The ring of the hood is deformed over the lens.

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What awful luck, Paulus, and I hope your MP and 35 Summicron have not sustained any damage themselves.

 

I agree that a plastic hood might provide a rough 'crumple zone' that might limit damage but it will depend on the energy with which the camera hits the ground (the mass of the camera and lens times the height it fell from) and whether the plastic hood could absorb it.  An MP with a Noctilux attached, for example, would hit the ground with far more energy and perhaps too much for a plastic hood to absorb.  Your metal hood actually absorbed a lot of energy through bending and distorting so it may have saved your MP and 35 from serious damage.

 

Perhaps the answer is a thick rubber hood that bounces the camera back into the owner's hand without damage (joking). :lol:  

 

Pete.

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What awful luck, Paulus, and I hope your MP and 35 Summicron have not sustained any damage themselves.

 

Thanks Pete, The 50 mm ( not a 35 ) summicron; I don't know if it's damaged. I still can focus, but I don't know if everything is really in focus. I also don't know if the ouside is dented. the uv filter is dent also.  The MP is without any scratch. Maybe the viewfinder is out, but I think Will van Manen can fix this.

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What awful luck, Paulus, and I hope your MP and 35 Summicron have not sustained any damage themselves.

 

I agree that a plastic hood might provide a rough 'crumple zone' that might limit damage but it will depend on the energy with which the camera hits the ground (the mass of the camera and lens times the height it fell from) and whether the plastic hood could absorb it.

 

 

 

The distance was 1,80m. Can you figure out how much the energy, the blow must have been?

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The distance was 1,80m. Can you figure out how much the energy, the blow must have been?

 

(I don't know why I thought it was a 35 since it has "50" engraved on it! :wacko:)

 

The MP and 50 Summicron weigh about 825 grams so the energy would be about 14.5 Joules (allowing for acceleration due to gravity only).

 

Pete.

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(I don't know why I thought it was a 35 since it has "50" engraved on it! :wacko:)

 

The MP and 50 Summicron weigh about 825 grams so the energy would be about 14.5 Joules (allowing for acceleration due to gravity only).

 

Pete.

I doesn't sound as much...but seeing the hood...

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I find Joules difficult to comprehend in terms of everyday practical objects.  For example, 1 Kilogram is easy because it's the weight of a small bag of flour, and 1 metre is easy because it's about the same as a long pace by a six-foot person (this is how I relate these quantities to practical equivalent).  Joules don't relate very easily because we can't see energy, only its effects (eg wind) or when it changes form (eg fire or explosion). 

 

Pete.

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@Paulus,

What dreadful luck - you have my condolences and best wises for a 100% recovery of both your MP and 50 'cron.

 

A plastic lens hood might be advantageous in horrific mishaps such as the one you have suffered; it would not deform and become stuck on the lens.  Beyond that, who knows if a plastic hood would provide any actual impact protection?  Dropping cameras is a lose-lose proposition; no good can come of it.

 

I almost dropped my Safari 240 with 90/2 APO attached a few days ago.  I was attaching it to my tripod head and thought I had locked the quick release plate into the clamp on the tripod head.  I had not.  The camera slipped and dropped about six inches before I caught it.  The only reason for my good fortune was that I had the camera strap around my neck.  My heart still ended up in my throat, though.

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As metal deforms it absorbs energy and decelerates more slowly than if everything remained rigid, thus reducing the absolute impact on both lens and camera. Plastic will deform but only to an extent and can then shatter, so the deceleration may not be as great as with a deforming metal hood, and can end abruptly, if it shatter,s thus allowing lens and camera to take more of the impact.

 

Although I have no absolute evidence to back up which might be a 'better' impact, my personal preference is to go with the deforming metal hood scenario - fortunately I've only tried this once myself and everything got mended ok :) . Looking at your hood I'd suggest that it took most of the impact as it deformed so probably saved you lens and camera from greater damage - oh yes, and I think that you should ebay your wrecked hood, appropriately described, as I'm sure someone will have fun readjusting it to work again :D .

 

Unfortunate, but these things do happen and at least your equipment can be fully repaired and will be as good as ever.

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As metal deforms it absorbs energy and decelerates more slowly than if everything remained rigid, thus reducing the absolute impact on both lens and camera. Plastic will deform but only to an extent and can then shatter, so the deceleration may not be as great as with a deforming metal hood, and can end abruptly, if it shatter,s thus allowing lens and camera to take more of the impact.

 

Although I have no absolute evidence to back up which might be a 'better' impact, my personal preference is to go with the deforming metal hood scenario - fortunately I've only tried this once myself and everything got mended ok :) . Looking at your hood I'd suggest that it took most of the impact as it deformed so probably saved you lens and camera from greater damage - oh yes, and I think that you should ebay your wrecked hood, appropriately described, as I'm sure someone will have fun readjusting it to work again :D .

 

Unfortunate, but these things do happen and at least your equipment can be fully repaired and will be as good as ever.

For the first time in my long career as a professional photographer, 18 months ago I dropped a camera.  In the heat of a shoot, I missed the slot in my holster and a Nikon D4 with a Nikon 24-70 f2.8G lens attached fell onto a carpeted floor from hip height.  It landed on the plastic lenshood, which survived the impact.  The lens, however, did not survive. It snapped in two leaving half of the lens attached to the camera and the other half lying about 4 inches away.  This lens is made mainly of metal and the metal barrel sheared completely through the mid point, acting as a crumple zone which fortunately saved the relatively cheap plastic lenshood from damage! :D

 

Although showing no outward signs of damage, the D4 body had suffered a distorted lens mount from the impact which caused half of the frame to be out of focus.   Insurance claim followed and the camera and lens were repaired by Fixation.  Both have continued to perform flawlessly since.

 

The point is, camera equipment isn't meant to be dropped.  Whether a lenshood is made of metal or plastic is academic, the function of a lens hood is to improve contrast and protect against lens flare, not against impact.  To Paulus I would say that although the damage looks bad at the moment and he may be feeling down, a good repairer will soon have everything restored and working properly again. Keep things in perspective: no one was hurt, it's just a material possession which can be repaired or replaced and use a lens hood for what it's designed for.

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For the first time in my long career as a professional photographer, 18 months ago I dropped a camera. 

You are lucky. I always am very careful with my cameras, at least I think I am, but they still keep falling. This is the second time, I dropped a camera without the protection of a ever ready case of bag. My M6 titan was dropped in an ever ready case surviving the shock and my Nikon F4 was dropped in a Billingham bag, crushing the reflex housing, when it fell down an escalator on the railwaystaion.

 

The first time whithout protection it was a Nikon F3 with a 1,8/ 85mm AF lens with a metal hood. It also landed on the hood. The hood sprung of the filter thread. Damaging the thread a little , but not enough to prevent it from screwing the hood on again. The lens, body and metal hood ( altough a little deformed ) survived, as you can see in the picture. It was a drop of 1,5 meters on a church marble floor. The camera bounced back from the floor about 40 cm.

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Edited by Paulus
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I must say, that the Nikon F3 - 85mm combination felt just as heavy than a Leica MP + 50mm. The difference is the screw- in hood.

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