Lenscoats?

Does anyone use these camo things? Do they help at all??

I don't see how camo would do anything. They sell removeable camo tape for guns and bows at large sporting goods dealers. Where I am, a white lens is perfect camo right now anyway.


Kent in SD

The product is more for protecting equipment from dings and scratches.

Jim is right, IMO. If camo is what you're after (and the situations where I'd call it a requirement are not that common), a sleeve that fits over your camera and lens are better.

Kyle,,I use LensCoat covers on my lens and tripod. It protects the white coating on the lens especially for resale. It also helps in inclement weather. I only use it on my larger lenses. I haven't seen were it helps from a camoflouge aspect at all. I'd be careful using tapes. For years I used foam pipe insulation for my tripod mainly to cushion my shoulder when carrying.
I finally bought the LensCoat tripod covers and discarded the pipe insulation because I'm a matching freak.

If I had a big white lens, I would want to cover it up with something! Ok for sporting events and polar bears though. Lenses should be green in my opinion.

Amen, Robert. I cover my 300 with a green wrap used to store lenses in cases and backpacks. Works decently for some protection from the weather, too-- light rain, mist, fog, hot sun, cold, blowing sand, etc.

I read somewhere that using the lens coats on any large Tele lens in hot sun increases the internal heat of the lens too much. Is this correct or is it myth?

Ed, Can't comment on the internal heat within the lens but the coat does keep the external frame of the lens cooler.

Most camo is dark. Dark colors absorb more of the sun's rays and build heat more efficiently than light colors, so it makes sense that a lens would be hotter in the sun wearing a darker coat than with just the pale color of the lens body.

But the neoprene fabric of the coats also serves as insulation, so that would slow down, but not stop, the heating of the lens.

Is a hot lens an issue?

LensCoat covers are made of neoprene. The example they use is to take two canned drinks place them in the sun, one without a cover and one with a neoprene can holder. Take and drink out of both and then make your decision.

Well, I guess that if you left a lens parked in the sun like a car, it could be damaged in numerous ways by the kind of extreme heat build up you get inside a car. Paint, lubricants, plastics, coatings, and adhesives could all produce out gassing and be damaged by extreme heat. On the other hand, I have never done this to a lens and there are lots of big black lenses around.

I'm going to Yellowstone at the end of the month and was thinking of getting a LensCoat for my 300mm and Canon 5D Mark II from the weather..seems like this is an option and not a necessity for cold weather photography?