Fotodiox Dedicated Lens Hood (ES-62) - for Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens

This review is specific to the Fotodiox C-ES-62 lens hood. I thought I had made a mistake when I purchased this hood for a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens. The mistake was that an Amazon search showed this hood as a dedicated hood for the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens and I failed to notice the difference. The STM lens has a thread size of 49mm while the EF series II (manufacturer discontinued} has a 52mm thread size. Others have made this mistake and if you are looking at this review and have an STM lens than you have made the same mistake. But hold on. For me the mistake turned out to my advantage. The 49mm thread size of the STM lens is not as common as the 52mm and 58mm on Canon cameras. Although I have a full set of filters for the 52mm and 58mm sizes, I have nothing in the 49mm size. I realized that by buying a 49-52mm adapter {available on Amazon or most camera stores) I could save the expense and camera bag clutter of buying a whole new set of filters in 49mm. I have been using this hood with a 49-52mm adaptor for about a week. I find the hood which screws into the 52mm threads, fits well and remains in place, even when transporting in a camera bag. A previous reviewer who purchased this lens hood knocked it because he said the Canon lens cover did not fit well. I find the 49mm Canon lens cover for the STM lens fits well into the front of this hood and remains in place. I verified no edge shadows when wide open as you would expect none at APSC equivalent of 80mm. I did not experience lens flair in the field while shooting on the beach at sunset with a very close angle to the sun. I would recommend this lens hood as a fair value at the price and give it 5 stars.

My holiday was graced by a gift (to myself) of a (refurbished) Canon EF 50-mm f/1.8 II lens for about $100.00. Mounted on a Canon 40D body, it is producing stunningly crisp and beautiful images.But this review is about a Fotodiox lens hood to go with it, bought from/via Amazon, And it's about Fotodiox itself.At about five bucks, the hood is just what it is, and I don't expect much from it. But Fotodiox wants me to expect much more, and it resorts to petty tricks to bring that about. It describes this cheap product as "dedicated" for my Canon lens, then adds to its sales description and prominently displays on its own product's box, the *Canon* factory's unique product number,"ES-62."Unlike the Canon product bearing that number, the Fotodiox hood is stamped from cheap, flimsy metal not likely to withstand even routine use very long.[Update: Yep, it's cheap molded plastic.]It lacks the "squeeze points " featured on the Canon hood, allowing quick placement and removal.The Fotodiox hood is threaded so you can screw it into the threads of the lens (or the filter you've mounted beforehand). Unfortunately, Unscrewing the hood brings the filter with it, and separating those two is a real chore.Why such difficulty? It's either because Fotodiox specs were so bad that its hood is off-round, or the simple chores of handling and boxing the product have distorted the cheap material, making it off-round.[Update: Since it's plastic, the first reason is likely.]The Canon hood can easily be reversed and snapped over the lens, providing more lens protection. The Fotodiox hood, if one tries to bag it in similar fashion, might actually harm the lens barrel as in jostles about in a carry case.No doubt, given time, Amazon's vast inventory would have brought forth a far better hood than this junk, yet better priced than Canon's fifty-buck offering.By trying to hijack, or ride piggyback on, Canon's highly reputable brand name, Fotodiox has jeopardized the integrity of its own brand -- if it ever really cared about integrity. Shame on Fotodiox.Better to take that five bucks for the hood to the drugstore and buy one of those floppy sun hats. You can, as I often do, shade the camera with your hat as you take your picture.And if the hat's crazy-looking enough, someone may take you for an artist. <grin>Good shooting!

First off, Shipping. I ordered it Tuesday and it came Thursday! Very speedy! A+Secondly, the review: I like how simple and sturdy it actually is, But I am a tad bit skeptical on how long it is going to last. The framework on the actual Canon camera/lenses is how you say, not the most guaranteed as far as build, which brings me to the thread on the lens hood (The part that actually screws on the hood) and the thread on the actual lens. The lens seems fine, because its about 10 thread counts deep, but the lens hood only seems to be about 5, which might be necessary so that its not close to the actual lens, but it seems like there is just not enough thread counts on the lens hood. It does attach fine and when fully tightened seems like it won't be a problem, but I could imagine if I accidentally dropped it or bumped into a wall it might just snap off and damage the actual lens. But Overall for it's price, this is pretty sturdy minus the small thread area.Finally: For it's price, just give it a shot and get it. You'll be please with shipping, the build of it, and you don't like it, get a more expensive one.

One star drop, but I'll explain at the last.This is a short barreled hood, but does what it is supposed to: A) preventing strong light outside the focal view from entering the lens and causing ghosting, and B) great at blocking stuff when you are an idiot like me and aren't watching the rig when you aren't shooting... bashing the lens on the wall.This is a near perfect copy of Canon's ES-62 lens hood, all around, made out of solid material.The only flaw (and I will stress that Canon's hood suffers the same flaw) is that it comes very close to the focus ring on the lens. The issue is that the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 focuses internally, so the hood doesn't rotate during focus meaning the only way to focus manually is the ring, and the narrow ring can be hard to get a hold of when you have big fingers like I do. So it isn't perfect, but the lens itself pretty much the cause, and there is no way to escape this.Well worth it, especially considering you can get this for 1/5th of what Canon wants for the same piece of plastic.