I can’t remember where I first came across Squarehood. I had even forgotten about the name, but one day I needed a lens hood for the long-discontinued Leica Summarit 50/2.5. Then, I rediscovered Squarehood, and rescue arrived from Stockholm.
Lens hoods are important — to me at least. If they are well-designed, they improve optical performance by blocking stray light, especially with lateral sun. And they protect the front lens physically. More than once, I’ve wrecked a lens hood but saved the lens itself.
So, I no longer wanted to swap my one lens hood between my Leica Summarit 35/2.5 and 50/2.5 lenses. I rarely use them at the same time, but it was rather annoying to fiddle with the accessories whenever I was packing my bag. But the original Leica lens hood (12459, it had to be bought separately) is no longer available from Leica, as the entire f/2.5 lens range was terminated in 2014. The newer, f/2.4 versions were sadly discontinued in 2020.
Instead of trying my luck on eBay, I remembered that I had once read about a small company somewhere in Scandinavia. They, in my memory, made third-party lens hood for Leica lenses. I found Squarehood in Sweden, and this rang a bell. And yes! They do offer a screw-on metal hood for the first series of the 35 and 50 Summarits, that is, the ones with f/2.5.
The Squarehood lens fits on two lenses
The lens hood is specified to fit on both lenses, Leica order numbers 11643 and 11644 respectively. This is not surprising as Leica also had one common hood for both the 35 and 50mm lenses. The price, €104, was no bargain. But it was still below the €125 that Leica commanded, according to their 2007 price list, already nearly 20 years ago, for their original lens hood. More painful was €14.50 for (admittedly, superfast) shipping; that’s above the average for sending a 25-gram item within the European Union.
No vignetting or other issues
But what was inside the beautiful small box? A very nicely made, small metal hood that fits perfectly on both lenses. It causes no vignetting on the 35 despite being considerably narrower than the Leica hood. No issues with the 50 either, but you may of course wonder if you lose out on efficiency if the hood is wide enough for a 35mm lens?
From the design perspective, the hood from Squarehood resembles the newer Leica lens hoods which came (if I remember well) first with the Leica Q. The second series of the Summarit has a similar solution for the hood. And it was included, other than in the first series. By the way, this is one good reason to look for the later f/2.4 versions of the Summarits if you fancy one — optically, they are identical to the f/2.5 versions.
My new hood came with a nice front cover. It is made from very solid plastic and snaps easily and firmly into the front of the hood. I have the feeling it is less prone to get lost than the lens cap for the genuine Leica hood. On the other hand, it is not such a beautiful solution as the round, metal, felt-lined, slip-on lens cap that Leica made for the later 35/2.4 and 50/2.4 lenses. This design fits with hood attached as well as directly on the hood-less lens.
Squarehood has more to offer
At any rate, I received a thoroughly convincing product, and I think Squarehood is worth a recommendation. They also offer hoods for some other Leica lenses, as well as for the Q3 with the 43mm lens. A particularly interesting product is the hood for the 28 Summicron ASPH, version 1. This one came from Leica with a huge and ugly plastic hood. Squarehood’s solution is much more elegant and removes an obstacle for many prospective customers to buy this otherwise excellent and comparably affordable lens.
At least as intriguing are the accessories for Fujifilm X100 and GFX100RF cameras. On offer are lens hoods with built-in protective glass. If you wish, you can even opt for a haze filter for a more “dreamy look”. The product range furthermore contains hoods for selected Fujifilm X lenses and hoods for Ricoh GR cameras, some of them again with protective glass to avoid dust getting into the camera (that’s what Squarehood says, at least). However, a GR loses its pocketability with this device.
The photographer who built Squarehood
Squarehood obviously knows what appeals to Leica, Fujifilm and Ricoh owners — which is not surprising since it was a photographer who built up the company. He is Thomas Mansell, according to this video, and the name comes from their first products — hoods in square shape, with minimalist aesthetics, and in excellent quality. By now, the range also encompasses adapters, filters, leather pouches, straps, shutter buttons and more.
Beautiful design and good manufacturing
All in all, what Squarehood has to offer, might be captivating for many a Leica, Fujifilm or Ricoh user. Sure, these are no China-made copies of Leica products, and they are not bargains. But from my — admittedly limited — experience, I can say: These beautifully designed and meticulously crafted products are everything but… square.
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