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inasir1971
Guest
And there I was thinking the $270 I paid for the HK-30 hood for my AF-S 300 2.8G VR was expensive...
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Leonard Shepherd
Veteran Member
I assume the hood is carbon fibre - similar to several other similar Nikon hoods.
sirhawkeye64
Veteran Member
Even if this is the case, why the extreme price? I think in this case Nikon is just trying to take advantage of the fact that some people will break or lose the lens hood. I meanit is somewhat in line with other premium Nikon lenses (like the NIkon F 800mm whose lens hood is $1000, and the 600 f/.4E lens's hood is $579).
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Leswick II
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Are you and others justify these wacky prices ? This is not retail....it's skinning folks....their bank accounts. Just looked up kraft 6" tube for carrying documents and it was $6.07....or drafting docs tube (black plastic) for 30-60 bucks.....or 20X lower in price. One can easily adapt it, using some felt, small can of non-reflect paint, etc. Granted, it would not be carbon fiber.....wooptie doo :-D
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anotherMike
Veteran Member
not a surprise. When Nikon service lost my lens hood for the 200/2G I had years ago, I looked up the price and almost fainted - 500 bucks and change. Thankfully Nikon realized they had forgotten to send the hood back with the repair, so my heart rate stayed sane....
Joel Klein
Veteran Member
If the hood is 1k because its low volume, the lens itself should cost 100k perspectively
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JasonTheBirder
Guest
It's basically just supply and demand. So few people will actually order one. I'd be surprised if 2-3 were bought per year, max. Some random dude probably has to go into a shop and make it. So basically the cost is probably his or her time at around 200/hr.
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Your tennis racket is mass produced with a thin layer of carbon fiber wrapped around a steel tube.My carbon fiber tennis racket sure as heck doesn’t cost no thousand dollars what’s up with that?
You're missing the entire point of why they use the materials they do. If these hoods were made out of plastic they would offer no drop protection at all.
Leswick II
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If I need protection, I'd make sure the glass is insured....and I'd certainly not rely on the hood to save my bacon.....and that's my entire point.
Sigh. Again, not the point at all. If you drop your lens insurance isn't going to magically make one appear in front of you while you're working.
Leswick II
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The main reason for insurance is that if such incident happens, there is no way to rely on the lens falling directly on the hood....maybe that ONLY happens to you (?).
Graxxor Anandro Vidhelssen
Forum Enthusiast
Yep. Here come the big company apologists talking about how crazy hard it is to make a carbon fibre cylinder.
I backed a Kickstarter for a 100% monocoque carbon fiber e-bike. The whole complex frame was hand-formed meticulously out of a single piece of cured carbon fibre
came with a Samsung battery and a decent quality 500W silent hub motor.
whole bike cost $999.
so tell me again how difficult it is to make rubber gaskets.
no two ways about it. It’s a cash grab and as deserving of derision and ridicule as apple’s $600 Chinese casters that probably cost about a buck and a half each to mass produce.
but the fact that people will go to lengths to support, endorse or justify this sort of predatory behavior explains why we can’t have nice things (at reasonable prices).
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I guess the question is, what is the hood made of considering one of the goals Nikon was trying to achieve was a very lightweight lens. So, is it some very exotic lightweight material that costs a bomb and is difficult to manufacture and work with? It would be interesting to know how much the new hood weighs when my 400 f2.8 E FL VR carbon fibre lens hood weighs in at 355gms. 355gms on the new Z 400 f2.8 VR S would be 12% of the weight of the lens whereas on my 400 f2.8E FL VR it is only 9% of it's weight. This is a vital consideration when the weight is right at the end of the lens and thus can affect handing. So, you would think a major weight saving would have to occur to keep it in line with the weight saving of the lens itself. You may find that there is some exotic materials used that is difficult to work with that may attribute towards its high cost. Honeycomb type of resinous materials possibly. Very lightweight metals like titanium may need to be used.
They make this hood for every lens they ship, so it is not like they have to set up this whole precision tooling operation just for the spare hoods. And so they'll make another hundred extra hoods just in case, and the first couple they sell will pay for all the rest. I seriously doubt that a Japanese worker making those hoods is worth anywhere near $200/hr, let alone a Thai or Chinese worker who may very easily make these hoods just as well. There is no special craftsmanship in the hood, carbon fiber is not magical, and this price reflects what they think they can get away with, and not much else.
giarc
Veteran Member
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… sorry, no, lets stop right there. If you think the hoods for these super exotic $10k+ Lenses is are like ‘every hood they ship for every lens’, then that is all that needs be addressed: they are not.
Should this thing really cost $1k+? No, but its not at all like any lens hood you’ve ever seen if you can say the above with a straight face….
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JasonTheBirder
Guest
Well, if you are right, some third-party manufacturer should be able to make a very similar version for a fraction of the price and make a huge profit.
Leonard Shepherd
Veteran Member
I cannot speak for others - though I am not trying to justify the price.
Similar hoods were around at £450 20 years ago. About 10 years ago the 300 VR was under £4,000.
If this hood is Carbon fibre (several previous ones were) in theory you have to do something like run over one with a car to break the main hood. Fitting a new locking screw if one gets broken should be relatively inexpensive.
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Leonard Shepherd
In lots of ways good photography is much more about how equipment is used rather than anything else.
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Sandy27000
Leading Member
Shocking!
but hold on…just realised it’s not an issue for me, I’m not getting this lens
but hold on…just realised it’s not an issue for me, I’m not getting this lens