How useful are....

Aw, you noticed!

On the 58mm Nokton there is a lovely metal hood and I leave it on all the time. The lens is quite short anyway and it doesn't affect anything. The lens cap was a bit shoddy for the price of the lens, so I leave it off and the hood effectively acts as the protector for the lens. This would be pretty pointless with a plastic petal.

if i cant get the hood on fast i use my baseball cap to cover the lens a little tip where a hat but i do use them to protect the lens and always always put a fitter on the lens to protect the lens anyway.

Thanks for the great discussion people. I will carry on using my hoods even if they do make the lens look enourmous and gets cross threaded at times

I must admit that I have occasionally knocked the hood against a surface (such as a wall) and been glad it was not the lens.

The problem with macro work is when you focus in with the sigma 105 the hood puts the lens right upto the insect almost Knocking them off the flower!

Dave