A bit of luck...

[rpcrowe]

I usually travel with an extra hood for each lens but, since space was at a premium on my recent European trip, I carried only a single shade for each lens. Wouldn't you know that on the very first day, the hood for my 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens fell off as I was climbing aboatd a Venice Vaporetto (water bus) and hit the side of the boat with the hood. That's why you see many photojpurnalist tape their hoods on with gaffers tape. The hood now resides at the bottom of the Grand Canal...

However, luckily, I tried the hood from my 12-24mm f/4 Tokina and it worked O.K. It didn't fit into the Canon bayonet slot but I could jam it on the front of the 17-55mm an it wouldn't fall off. It didn't vignette and blocked the sun just fine. It actually was more secure than the Canon boyonet lock hood.

Anyway, that saved me some grief and saved me from kicking myself for not bringing a second hood.

I haven't processed the images I shot on the trip yet but, will post some and also post links to the smugmug pages I plan to store them on.

[Donald]

Reminds us of that old adage about, "If it can go wrong, it will!"

[NorthernFocus]

You could have just been a heretic and shot without a hood

[rpcrowe]

You are right Donald. We call that "Murphy's Law". The chances of a piece of equipment failing (or in this case being lost) is in a direct relationship to the importance of the equipment and in an inverse relationship to the availability of back up gear!

Dan, I realy don't like to shoot with a lens like the 17-55mm f/2.8 IS without a lens hood. It has a large front element that is conducive to flare when shooting without a hood. If the Tokina hood had not fit, I would have attempted to download and produce a paper version. http://www.lenshoods.co.uk/ There were several Internet cafes in Venice which have printing capability and I could have used a felt-tip marker to color heavy paper black. I am glad that I did not have to but, was surprised at how well the Tokina hood worked with the Canon lens. I have a hunch that I would have needed to fabricate a couple of paper hoods to last the trip.

The one thing that I don't like about the Canon bayonet style hoods is that they come off quite easily after a slight bump. The Tokina system seems better in that the hood is more securely attached (and is also provided free with the lens). I expect that I will carry some gaffer's tape to secure my hoods on future trips...

A fellow trourist and photographer told me that he often carries his lens hoods by threading the carrying strap on his camera bag through the hood. This might look somewhat rinky-dink but. would have allowed me the luxury of carrying the extra hood which I already owned (a Chinese copy which was so inexpensive that I purchased two).

BTW: it is not the fact that the hood was a Chinese copy that made it easily fall off. I have had the same thing happen with Canon OEM bayonet lock hoods. However, those times the hoods did not land in the Grand Canal...

[siggi]

I have lost 2 lens caps on my travels,never considered a spare lens hood.

[RustBeltRaw]

I'm about to get on a plane for Turkey, so I suspect I'm jinxing myself by saying I've never lost a lens cap. I did damage the hood on my EF 100mm f.0 USM when I dropped the lens down the stairs. That lens, and the EF 85mm f1.8 USM, both use a precarious four-prong, button-actuated mount that's even less sturdy than the Canon bayonet mount (which gets sloppy and loose over time). I've gotten into using little gaffer tabs tabs on my hoods to keep them from twisting off. Fold over one end of a tape strip roughly 3/4in (19mm) wide, and it makes the taped hoods easy to swap on and off. Highly recommended.

I also custom-paint my lens hoods, so I have another incentive to avoid losing or damaging them.

[rpcrowe]

Iended up on one shoot with an extra lens cap. As I was shooting, a lady came up to me with a 77mm cap and said, "I think you dropped this!" I thanked her and put it in the pocket of my shooting vest; only to learn later that the hood was not mine and I now had two hoods in my pocket!

[Brev00]

I have never heard of carrying a backup lens hood before! So Murphy's Law should be slightly amended: the chance of a piece of equipment failing is in direct proportion to how much one is worried about it failing. Perhaps that is from the low quality hoods you have come across. My lens hoods (Tamron, Sigma, Tokina) all seem sturdy enough all things considered. I think my Sigma 17-70 lens hood will outlast the lens which has already been in for repairs once.