Great product! I have several OP/TECH products and all of them are perfect and do exactly what they are supposed to. I have filter holders and straps that are years old and are like new condition. OP/TECH's Hood Hats are perfect for my needs. Maybe I'm just getting old or I've just spent too many hours working on hot engines with bare hands but I'm really starting to hate the 'pinch' style lens covers. They're hard to put on with a hood and I've totally given up trying not to drop one when taking them off. Then after they're off I never have anywhere to put it and I hate putting them in pants pockets because I'm sure I'll forget eventually and sit down and break one. I don't want to toss them because I DO use them for storage and transport. Sony is very proud of their everything so I'd hate to be replacing covers 4-5 times a year. Hood Hats will never break. Ever. Sit on them, step on them, run them over with a car, they're fine. Hood Hats also do something that plastic lens covers don't. I shoot from a vehicle a lot and much of that is off road, and/or I'm in and out of the vehicle a lot. Typically I sit my camera on the passenger side seat or on the console between the seats. A lens cover does absolutely nothing to protect the hood from scuffs and bumps. Like random bumps against the door jam or door when getting in and out of the vehicle. Hood Hats are thick neoprene so they offer some cushion between the lens/lens hood and whatever the lens/hood is resting on. Usually I try to set my camera on something soft but when you're bouncing all over the place, things don't always stay where you put them. So, if the lens/hood ends up resting on the parking brake handle I don't have hard plastic bouncing on hard plastic until I can stop and reposition things. Depending on the lens hood, these seal tight to the hood. IMHO, doing a better job of keeping dust off the front element than a normal hard plastic lens cover. They are super easy to handle, unlike slippery hard plastic covers. They're light. They won't break in sub freezing weather. The medium and large are too big to get lost if you set one down in a hurry. Oh, and they don't slide around on leather upholstery like hard plastic does. :) Pros? Everything above. Cons? Two handed job to put one on. They can be removed and stored with one hand - IM experience - faster than a plastic lens cover, but its definitely a two handed job to put it back. The good part is that after a few times you can do that just as fast as putting on a plastic cover. Not ***PRACTICAL*** with some lens hoods. I'm not saying "not COMPATIBLE" - practical is NOT the same as compatible. Very short, very wide hoods may not be good candidates IMHO. I have a Minolta 28-70 mm G with a hood that's about 1" tall and much larger in diameter than the lens itself. Does OP/TECH make a Hood Hat that diameter? Yes. The issue is that the hood is SO short and so wide compared to the lens that when the Hood Hat is installed its kind of a floppy mess. THIS IS NOT a problem with the Hood Hat, its just a really horked up Minolta design. I LOVE that lens but that has to be the dumbest hood design ever. I have had ABSOLUTELY no issues with the Hood Hat on Sony's 16-35mm Zeiss or 70-400 SSM G II, both of which use a 'petal' style hood. PAY ATTENTION: Hood Hats are stretchy and soft (which is what makes them really cool). However, they offer slightly more than zero protection of the front element/filter(s) from impact. They will NOT stop anything smaller than the diameter of the lens hood from contacting the element/filter if there is any force involved. If the hood is short (or you have no hood installed) like my Minolta lens then that means EVERYTHING will contact the front element/filter. The 'slightly more than zero' part is that at least the neoprene is thick. This is why I still keep the plastic lens covers for storage and transport. I only use the Hood Hats in the field. The rest of the time I keep the OEM lens cover in place and put the Hood Hat over the top of everything. KEEP PAYING ATTENTION: These might not be the new hotness for those of you who dump your cameras in a bag (shoulder bag, whatever) while wandering around on foot, bike, whatever. I photograph in dusty areas so its inevitable that dust is going to get on the inside of the Hood Hat. The last thing I want is tough neoprene with scratchy silica pressed up against a filter or worse the front element being worked back and forth by walking, biking, horseback riding, vehicle motion or whatever. Effectively you might as well have a piece of sandpaper rubbing up against the front of your camera lens. Since the only time my camera is in a 'bag' is in transit (as noted above, a plastic lens cover is then installed), this isn't a concern of mine. In truth, I really wouldn't recommend Hood Hats for constant use without a hood installed in normal operating position on the lens. In the case of my Minolta 28-70mm lens, its probably not even a good idea WITH the hood installed. Really one needs something more solid on the front than a Hood Hat to protect the glass from impact/contact. Also, if you're clumsy and tend to drop and/or whack your camera up against things, you might want to stick with standard lens covers. However, under the circumstances I use them, they rock, and I would definitely recommend them. I just wish they'd come out about 40 years ago. :)
