Are Lens Hoods Wrecking Your Photos In Cold Weather?

[Steve]

Are you a cold weather shooter? Did you know your lens hood could be working against you if the conditions are right, absolutely turning your photos to mush? Give me four minutes and I'll show you when to watch for the problem, what it looks like, and how to avoid it. A must-see for every cold weather, long lens shooter!

 

[DanG]

Very interesting. I had a couple of outings where I thought I’d lost my mind with soft images in the bitter cold. Your video was very helpful and I suspect that image quality reduces somewhat in the extreme cold due to other circumstances beyond what I understand. Thanks as always Steve!

 

[wes]

Well that thought has never crossed my mind before!!

 

[Steve]

Well that thought has never crossed my mind before!!

Mine either - but it was driving me NUTS as you might expect! There was jus too reason for the soft owls, and fortunately the idea occurred to me while shooting one so I had instant feedback. I tell ya, I was starting to think something had happened to my 600mm at first (although when my wife started showing me her pics, I knew it was something else). At least removing the hood seems to help

 

[patelmu1]

thank you very much Steve, I have experienced this many times at Conowingo dam, Maryland when shooting eagles in early morning. Till todayI was thinking that its heat distortion without any apparent reason. Now I know, will try this during early morning shooting. Great tip!

 

[ALTO]

I have been shooting Bald Eagles in Quad Cities and when I stepped out of vechile I was having a big problem with autofocus and soft photos.
This makes sense the way you explained in both videos. I knew it just couldn't be my shooting technique ha ha ha

 

[bleirer]

I wouldn't have thought of that one in a million years.

 

[Snapshot2020]

Thanks Steve, I’ve often seen soft photos in Cold Weather situations when photographing away from my Truck after walking about 10-20 feet or more away from the truck. I’m definitely going to do some testing as well.

 

[Palmor]

Wow, I can say this happened to me recently but I didn't make the connection. There is an Eastern Screech owl that is nesting in a tree right beside a road. On our normal weekend birding trips we drive by to see if it's visible and I'll take quick photo if it is. A couple of weeks ago I got out the car for quick shot when it was COLD and I saw the same thing, what I could swear was heat distortion and the only thing I could think of is if the tree trunk somehow absorbed some heat... but now that you mentioned this I bet 100% it was the lens hood coming from the warm car.

I wonder if material of the hood will make a difference. I have one of those soft hoods for my Sony 600 f4 and wonder if they would give off more or less heat then the OEM one... maybe I'll give it a try today since it's pretty cold out. If I do have a chance I'll report back.

 

[ingweDave]

Really interesting Steve, it makes total sense! I’ve just returned from Yellowstone, so I now have a good excuse for the soft images

 

[bleirer]

Maybe that cold stare from the owl was just enough to lower the temp into the danger zone.

 

[Doug A.]

My fellow astrophotographers are probably chuckling to themselves and nodding their heads watching this video. We've been aware of and dealing with this phenomenon for a long time.

 

[Tibor Hrnko]

Astrophotography, especially using Newtonian reflectors, knows this effect as "tube currents". Thanks for pointing out the effect it can have on the wildlife shooting.

 

[jeffnles1]

Are you a cold weather shooter? Did you know your lens hood could be working against you if the conditions are right, absolutely turning your photos to mush? Give me four minutes and I'll show you when to watch for the problem, what it looks like, and how to avoid it. A must-see for every cold weather, long lens shooter!

@Steve, great and timely advice. I had a number of photos turn out blurry yesterday. Temp was about 15 F. I noticed ones I took after being out for a while looked sharper. Wish I would have watched your video before yesterday morning. I would not have missed a couple shots of river otters playing on the ice.

As always, thanks for sharing your knowledge and findings with us. Much appreciated.
Jeff

 

[Ken Miracle]

Thanks @Steve ... why when I am photographing from a vehicle or even going to be getting out ... my heat in the cold and AC in the summer are off and windows down to equalize the temps. I have never experienced this that, I remember but at my age who knows I could have blamed it on something else. Now I know to be even more cautious so I make sure and do that well before we get to the shooting area. Yup I am bundled up inside the vehicle and my wife just bought electric heated socks and hand warmers

 

[Warren D]

By the time I hike and find the snowy owl, my lens is close to ambient. Good to keep in the back of my mind.

 

[Cas1234]

Are you a cold weather shooter? Did you know your lens hood could be working against you if the conditions are right, absolutely turning your photos to mush? Give me four minutes and I'll show you when to watch for the problem, what it looks like, and how to avoid it. A must-see for every cold weather, long lens shooter!

The tip comes at incredible timing. Just picked up the 1.4E III converter, strapped in on my Nikon 200-500 lens, went outside in 12 deg temp took a bunch of photos, came back in to see my wonderful new CLOSE up shots and low and behold, all, blurred, very soft!! I was thinking there was something wrong with the converter. Went back out several more times with the same results. Time to try again with no lens hood and then leaving the rig outside for an hour and try again. Thanks Steve, I am breathing a sigh of relief!!

 

[Woodyg3]

I would never have imagined the lens hood would carry enough heat to make this happen. Thanks for this info. This might be a good reason to keep the camera back in the trunk where it's a little colder.

 

[MikeS]

This makes total sense and I will be keeping this in mind next time out in the cold. Oh, wait.... I live in Canada; that's every day! Thanks for telling us about this Steve. I've always wondered how many decisions are made to buy new equipment because of mushy images when all the time it was atmospheric conditions working its evil. And now there is one more variable.

 

[NorthernFocus]

OK @Steve , you've achieved rock star status. Incredible bit of problem analysis. I did it for a living and I'm impressed. Major.. no... MASSIVE kudos.

 

[NorthernFocus]

Have to wonder if even after allowing time for cold soak on the gear on cold sunny day can the hood warm enough to do the same thing.

 

[DRwyoming]

I would never have imagined the lens hood would carry enough heat to make this happen.

It's really the lens itself that has the thermal mass to hold the heat. The lens hood just creates a bit of a tunnel that traps the turbulent air as the heat from the lens body interacts with the cold outside air. As posted above this is something astrophotographers deal with. But yes, keeping the camera gear and lens colder can minimize the problem.

 

[Maljo]

Very, very useful info! Thanks, Steve.

 

[riseform]

Genius and timely in February! Thank you.
Since I've run out of appropriate ebooks to purchase, my thank you for this tip was finally becoming a "supporting member", although I'm not sure why I hadn't done that earlier. I really appreciate how much I've learned from Steve and the members of this forum. Thank you.

 

[ssheipel]

As I mentioned on the Youtube channel, I definitely have experienced this outcome without knowing it -- in fact it created a lasting doubt (tho not borne out generally, still it lingered) about the 'quality' of my 180-400 lens after jump out of the car in deep cold, grab some shots, and get back in car and move on, only to have NO keepers. Brilliant observation and test, Steve.