First of all, I'm a beginner photographer, and I wasn't totally convinced that I should buy a lens hood. But everywhere I look, people seem to recommend buying one, so I went along with the consensus.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on this Canon lens hood:

0) It was fifty bucks. For a piece of molded plastic lined with felt on the inside. But it was well-engineered piece of plastic. The hood twisted on and off the lens *very* smoothly. I would expect off-brands to not get this feature perfectly right.

1) It makes your camera look bigger and bulkier. This is good if you're try to show off your pro-photographer-ness, bad if you're trying to not draw attention. Note that the hood can be put on the lens backward, which save space when the lens goes into a bag.

2) It blocks light from the sides, as designed. Well, it is most effective at wide angle. At telephoto, the hood leaves the lens wide open on the sides. This is because the hood blocks a constant *field of view*, and the field of view decreases as you zoom in. In fact, the only lens whose hood adapts correctly with the focal length is the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lens. That lens gets *longer* at wide angle and shorter at telephoto.

3) I heard that a lens hood can protect your lens from dirt, and can also take the blow when the lens is dropped. For the former, I think a UV filter is much preferable. For the latter, I hope to never think about it. I just don't trust my lens and camera being dropped, period! I don't believe that a piece of plastic will be enough to reduce the impact.

4) It's really a shame that the EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 lens didn't include the hood. It is practically an L-lens in terms of image quality and especially cost. The least Canon could do to keep customers happy is to include the lens hood with the lens.Get more detail about Canon EW-83J Lens Hood for EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM Lens.