Originally uploaded by mehampson
I went on a photo walk today with the 28-105mm zoom, a new knock-off ebay lens hood, and a Hoya Pro1 DMC circular polarizer.
The lens hood is not the easiest thing to get on and off of the lens, but it was about a third of the price of a genuine Canon hood, so I'm not complaining. It does what it's supposed to do perfectly: it shades the front of the lens from light coming in along the sides. That light doesn't form part of the image, but it does affect it by reducing contrast or causing irregular splotchy bits of light to appear. Canon doesn't ship lens hoods with most of its lenses (the professional L series are the exception) and the prices they charge are frankly ridiculous, so I'm all for getting the imitation off-brand lens hoods. The one I got even has soft black flocking on the inside, to help further reduce any reflections off of the plastic. A nice touch.
The circular polarizer is not an item I would buy cheaply. Essentially they work by filtering light based on its polarization, a characteristic the human eye can't really detect. Glaring reflections tend to be regularly polarized, for example, and light in the blue sky, so using a circular polarizer on a bright, sunny day can seriously enhance the color and contrast of your images.
Cheaply made circular polarizers are not worth the money: they can change the focus point of the lens, reflect light back and worth between itself and the sensor, color the image, and so on -- and that's not getting into quality control problems.
Anyway, it's getting nice enough to actually get outside and take some photos. That's a huge relief. I can't wait for spring, so things start to green up a bit.
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