Third party lens hoods?

[anubis404]

Are third party lens hoods any good as long as they twist and lock onto the hood mount of the lens? I'm looking for a hood for my Nikon 80-200mm F2.8 (the HB-7 hood) and I'm seeing a lot of hoods closely resembling the HB-7 for less than half the price. Does it matter?

 

[Big Mike]

Just make sure that the size is correct...otherwise the hood may block the lens at the wider end of the zoom and give you vignetting.

 

[Tolyk]

Marumi makes third party lens hoods, not sure if they have one for that lens or not though. From what I've seen, they work the exact same, and tend to be the same shape/size as the brand name hoods.

Also, a lot of people like the Hoya Multi-hoods that screw into your filter ring. They're interesting