Review: EW-83J Lens Hood Clone

EW-83J lens hood on my Canon lens

Lens hoods are a useful accessory for your camera. They serve a couple of purposes - keeping side light from reflecting off your lens and causing problems, and protecting the end of the lens. Normally when you buy a lens, it comes with a cap but no hood. Mid to high end lenses, like my Canon 70-200mm f/4 L lens, often come with a lens hood. However, my 17-55mm f/2.8 lens did not come with a hood.

You can buy one from Canon, but it's around $75 Canadian, which is ridiculous for a piece of plastic. So several manufacturers have made similar hoods for the same lens. I bought the BlueBeach version of the EW-83J.

At the time of writing, it's $12 Canadian, which is much more reasonable for a shaped piece of plastic. Shipping is extra, of course, unless you add enough to your order to get free shipping.

Please note: if you buy anything from the Amazon links in this post, I receive a small percentage of anything you buy as a commission, at no extra cost to you.

EW-83J lens hood

The hood comes in a plastic bag - actually one bag inside another, for some reason - and is just the hood with no instructions. Here are my instructions.

1. Take it out of the bags.
2. Screw it onto the end of your lens.
3. Twist it until it doesn't obscure your photo.
4. Go take some photos.

It's pretty simple.

Some Amazon reviewers have complained that it doesn't fit quite right, and they had to trim it a bit with a hobby knife to make it fit. I found it was a snug fit on my lens - which is good - and so far it has stayed on and done its job. I've been using it for a few weeks now.

To be honest, it fits just as well as the Canon lens hood that came with my 70-200mm lens. That Canon hood sometimes doesn't thread right on the first try, so I have to back it out and try again. Not a big deal, as you normally aren't slapping a hood on in a hurry.

EW-83J lens hood on the Canon 17-55mm lens

It has kind of a petal shape. Make sure you orient it right so that it doesn't block anything in your view. If you have it 90 degrees out of whack, it will cause a little vignetting, just like the "real" Canon hood does.

I'm very satisfied with my lens hood. If you need a hood for your Canon 17-55mm EF-S f/2.8 lens, you might want to buy this one!

You can browse all lens hoods on Amazon, but I really recommend that you search for your particular lens to find a hood made specifically for it. You want a good fit, and read the reviews to ensure people are happy with it. In the end, it's just a piece of plastic, so all that can really go wrong is that it doesn't fit right.

Good shooting!

Ready to photograph!

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