Anyone use lens hood for MP-E 65mm?

I am planning to buy an MP-E 65mm in February, and I'm not sure if it's worth the additional $40 for the hood. It seems very worth it in theory, because when you work at extremely close distances at the higher magnifications, you are almost firing your flash directly across the lens. Doing this with other lenses causes a reduction in contrast and can create flares and other unwanted artifacts.

Also, does anyone use a clear filter with this lens? I am not nearly as convinced of the usefulness of this item for this particular lens, but I would be interested in hearing the opinion of anyone who has actually tried one with positive or negative results.

No filter here but I am also using a small hood I got on Ebay for aroound $17. Seems to very effective against reflexions from the Mt24 falsh.
I also one custom made where I put some LED in it.

I use the Canon lens hood with my MT-24/MPE-65 rig.

Diffused MT-24 flash heads seem likely to create flare to me, especially when rotated towards the lens. However, I have never tested my rig for flare with and without the lens hood. The lens hood doesn't bother me so I just leave it attached to the rig and forget about it.

The cost, as with so many small Canon accessories is high, though!

I use neither a hood or filters with this lens. Anything taken with this lens has to be carefully thought out. It is not a pick p and start shooting type of lens. Light placement is one of the things I pay attention to.

Thanks for the comments, folks. Has anyone out there actually done a test that showed a worst-case-scenario lighting situation with and without the hood? I would love to see a before and after shot if anyone has such a thing in their archives somewhere.

never used a hood, working distance is pretty minimal.

Thanks for the opinion, Toby. I suppose the way to go is probably just to buy one and use it a bit without the hood. If it works well enough for me, then there's no reason to buy a hood. I'll probably make a pseudo-hood out of white plastic for more diffuse high-mag lighting anyway, so perhaps the hood will be pointless with that in place.

Just a pic to give you an idea of how little is the working distance at max magnification. Your only talking an inch or two. There really is no room for a hod. The subject would be inside the hood.

And the result. Individual pollen grains.

Thanks for the demonstration, JJ, but I'm not super worried about working distance except maybe all the way at 5x. The hood (see http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …01_MP_E_65_Lens​_Hood.html) only extends a tiny amount beyond the end of the lens, so it should not reach all the way to the subject even at 5x. That said, I realize that it would block the flash a tad compared to no hood, and a tad is a lot when you're talking about a working distance of 2 inches.

Part of me wants the hood just to keep me from constantly bumping the lens glass into stuff when I'm trying to find the subject in the viewfinder. I occasionally do that with the Raynox 250 attached to my Canon 100mm, which has a working distance of around 3 inches at 2.5x.