I was looking at the sony lense hood in their magazine, and it cost 100$ .. well, sony isn't getting that from me :)
I set out to create a lense hood out of cardboard (you know, that cereal box-type cardboard?) for my f717. Since i always have atleast one filter on, i figured i'd make it to fit snug on the outside of that protruding filter, so that i wouldn't need any fancy mechanism.
To get the shape of the lense hood, i wrapped a sheet of 1/4 inch ruled paper where i wanted the lense hood. I then focused at about 5 cm (which is what was needed to clearly see the lines on the paper). To make sure my tube was cylindrical though, i taped a filter to the other end of it, ensuring a constant diameter all the way. Here's a picture when the tube is installed:
I then took out the piece of paper, and carefully lookign at where the field of view ended in the picture, traced a shape and cut it out. I then put it on the camera and tested it, making any necessary modifications. I then traced this on the cardboard, took out one of my really black markers, and made it all black (i could have simply bought black cardboard, but i took what i had in the house :), which was blue hehe ). Then i just slip it onto the camera and take some pics :)
you might notice a small white band on the bottom of the first one, i hadn't aligned the hood properly in that, despite it working very well in blocking the light :) i have since trimmed the hood a bit and aligned it properly :P
Nice job - I'm a big fan of all things ghetto in the photography world. It seems to work very well. I might do the same thing for my Coolpix.
My current "ghetto" project is a softbox but it's just a pile of pieces at the moment. Hopefully by the end of the week I will have something completed - I might post it here if it works well.
Nice looking hood you ended up with...I was wondering if you ever thought of designing a "raincoat" for your camera. I tried a few weeks ago using a ziplock bag and came to the conclusion it was a one time use "raincoat"
