How to deal with 60mm f/2.4's annoyng lens flare?

Hello. Lately I've been using the 60mm for evening cityscapes. While I love the lens for its beautiful rendering, compact size, close-focus abilities and sharpness, I'm annoyed by the lens flare it produces near street lights even when I'm using the hood. For this example I was also using my hand to shade the lens (it's even worse when I'm not shading the lens).

I'm considering making a cardboard cutout to put in front of the lens hood. I'll have to experiment when I've some free time. Has anyone any other suggestions how to deal with this?

I've never suffered this but I know it happens. I assume no filter was fitted? One Pro adapted his lens hood this to avoid flare from studio lights. The result is similar to fitting the 60mm with the compact rectangular hood from the 35mm f1.4 which is what most do if they own both lenses.

Otherwise I used a 39mm UV filter with no glass as a spacer then a 39-58mm stepup ring and 3rd party 58mm metal screw-in hood.

The supplied hood takes the lenses macro/closeup abilities into consideration  and in my opinion offers inadequate protection for anything else.

Vic

Hi,

Nice night-light-stars, but I see what you mean about the flare.  Whats not absolutely clear is what is causing it.

• Filters can exacerbate flare, though plenty of lenses flare by themselves. Can you tell us?  If there was a filter on, try it without one.
• If it's caused by the lights actually in the image, no hood of any kind can help you with that.  Obviously, their light has to be visible to the lens and sensor to be photographed.  You may find it varies a bit with aperture.  Other than trying alternative apertures, I've no other solution to suggest..... 
• If  OTOH, if it's caused by a light just outside the field of view, that is, just outside the image, that's a different issue.  Then a good hood may well cut it out.  I see Vic has already made some suggestions there. 

Be aware that a number of Fuji's lenses have hoods that don't work all that well.  Some of the issues relate to attachment and fit.  Others relate to effectiveness.  With a few exceptions, the hoods bayonet onto the outside of the filter rim of the lenses.  But Fuji chose the diameter of the rims rather poorly in my view.  It appears to be a cosmetic choice that suits the outer diameter of the barrels.  Some are way outside the FOV of the optics.  Eg, the 23/1.4 has a 62mm thread but works perfectly well with 52mm filters at all settings.  So does the 55-200 and there are a few others.  All of which means that the hoods start off being bigger in diameter than they need to be at the point of attachment and I'm not convinced that they all shade the front element as much as they might.  And zoom hoods can't possibly work with the same level of effectiveness at all FLs.  But I digress.....

The 60mm lens is one where the hood bayonet is bigger than the 39mm optical opening.  OTOH, the front element is reasonably recessed at distant focusing distances.   I suggest doing some experimenting -  filters off, different apertures, different hood arrangements.  See if you can cut it out.  And tell us how it goes......

Cheers, Rod

Thank you for your replies.

Yes, no filters were used. The first image shared by Vic is what I'll try to accomplish. I don't own the 35mm f/1.4 however.

Rod, the flare is caused by a lamp post a bit outside the frame. The hood didn't help a lot so for that one photo I additionally shaded the lens using my hand (which didn't completely get rid of the flare either). As you mentioned apertures - in live view the flare wasn't apparent, however when I pressed the shutter on the remote halfway the aperture would stop down to f16 and I was able to see the flare before actually taking the picture. Next time I'll try taking a photo at a larger aperture and if that gets rid of the flare then I'll have to experiment with masking a few exposures.

Details of the adapted lens hood here:

https://www.prophotonut.com/2012/05/09/fuji-x-pro1-60mm-lens-hood-mask-and-filter-step-up-fix/

Some more options here: http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31752

A discussion here by knowledgeable people. https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/37884466

Vic

Thanks a lot. The first link should do it.

In the meantime, I managed to get rid of most of the flare on that photo in PP: