scratch on lens from hood?

Have you ever heard of someone scratching their lens with a lens hood when putting it back on in reverse? The other night I was putting the lens hood on my 70-300 back on in reverse for storage, and accidentally slipped and I think it hit the glass. I am extremely OCD with my equipment and paranoid.... so now every time I use the lens I look at it from every angle in every bit of light that I can. Sometimes I think I see something... but then when I move slightly I can't find it again.

So, do you think its possible for a plastic lens hood to damage the lens or would it take much more than that to cause a scratch?

I dont think you have anything to worry about. The hood plastic is much softer than the front element on your camera.

gonzogolf wrote in post #15207563
I dont think you have anything to worry about. The hood plastic is much softer than the front element on your camera.

Ok thank you!

When you put your lens hood on for shooting, do you take your lens cap off first? I have tried putting my hood on and then taking off the cap... but it is too deep to get the cap.

Honestly my lens caps spend more time in my pocket than they do on the lenses. I get caught up in the process of making images and tend to be a bit haphazard about replacing caps and such. I piece them all together at the end of the shoot. I guess thats the long way of saying the cap comes off first.

Even if the plastic were hard enough to cause an issue, any "scratch" that you have to hunt for and sometimes think maybe you might see is simply not enough of a "scratch" to worry about.

get center pinch caps if you want to take them off/put them on with the hood still attached...i also doubt it did any damage

DreDaze wrote in post #15207680
get center pinch caps if you want to take them off/put them on with the hood still attached...i also doubt it did any damage

I have a center pinch but cannot use it on the 24-105. The objective lens is convex enough that the lens needs a cap that offers more clearance such as the OEM caps.

Even is you did accidently make contact with the lens with the hood the glass is not going to be scratched unless you got grit on the hood where it made contact with the lens. Just don't make it a habit and your images will rarely exhibit any damage visible in a print.

Another vote against "Center pinch" cap when added to OCD user!

With hood on, specially a deep one, you will have always sort of contact between cap and front element.

If really bothered, use a uv filter even if that causes a vignette.