Nikon is better than Canon…

April 28, 2008

At least when it comes to lens caps. Now, this is just my opinion, but I shall overwhelm you with photographic evidence that this is the case, and then we shall all be in agreement.

First of all, a Canon lens cap:

By all appearances, this is a perfectly adequate lens cap. It fits on the end of a lens, thus capping it. It helps keep speckly dust monsters off the lens elements, and can potentially help prevent minor bumps and bruises. I find it especially helpful when I’m in really quiet settings like churches, or weddings, or rock concerts, and I need to know if my lens will autofocus quietly. I just look down at the lens cap, see the word “Ultrasonic,” and know that I can autofocus in near-silent bliss. All around, these lens caps by Canon are fine. And, you’ll please note the two tabs on either side, which push in, for attachment.

But.

There comes a time in every photographer’s life when he, or she, decides to experiment with “lens hoods.” For some people, these mostly plastic devices (which attach to the end of a lens) are used to prevent “lens flare” which can be quite distracting. For others, it is used to add size and weight (and by this term I mean significance, not mass) to lenses. Some of us use them to distinguish ourselves from the average shutterbug. “Oooh, look at me, I have a lens hood. I am a REAL.PHOTOGRAPHER ™. No, I am not compensating for anything!”

And herein lies the problem.

With the lens hood attached, sometimes it become a little difficult to remove or replace the lens cap, precisely due to the placement of the push tabs on the outer rim of the lens cap.

Now, on a lens like my 17-40mm f/4 L, this isn’t that much of an issue. That’s largely due to the fact that the lens hood is shaped like a pizza…wide and flat.

But, the lens hood on my 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS is shaped more like a cup, a long, narrow cup. I had the same shaped hood on my 24-70mm f/2.8 L…a long, deep lens hood with no room to get at the tabs on the lens cap.

You may not be able to tell from this particular photo, but the lens hood is roughly 4 inches deep. With my, shall we say, un-skinny hands, it’s not very easy to get the lens cap on or off without removing the hood, which is a pain.

So, why doesn’t Canon take some notes from Nikon on this? I mean, check out the lens caps for most Nikon lenses.

(Thanks to flickrer the_defiance for allowing the use of this image).

It’s genius! Pinch tabs in the middle of the lens cap! You can reach down into a lens hood and extract or replace the lens cap with ease. This isn’t rocket surgery, Canon. Perhaps you can roll out a new and more awesomer lens cap when you roll out the mythical 5D MkII! In fact, may I be so bold as to request that you engineer and fabricate and make standard issue this new lens cap on the soon-to-be-released Canon 5D MkII and the new 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS kit combination that I just KNOW you have to be working on.

Come on, Canon. Let’s make this happen. Lens caps should be a joy to use, even for chubby-digited folk like myself.

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