What is the purpose of the Tulip shaped plastic shade

[ERdept]

that comes with the camera. I have only used my lens without it and don't understand the purpose of it. I have a Nikon D 70s.

cliff

[Asylum Steve]

Without seeing a picture of the shade (or a better description), it sounds like it might be a wide-angle lens shade.

The "petals" of the shade are shorter on the two sides because of the rectangular frame of an SLR. Making them all equal would cause vignetting or darker edges along the long sides of the frame.

Just a guess...

that comes with the camera. I have only used my lens without it and don't understand the purpose of it. I have a Nikon D 70s.

cliff

[Trevor Ash]

Sorry if this is too general. It's called a lens hood. When used, it improves (potentially anyway) the quality of your photos by blocking direct light from entering the lens. It helps to improve contrast and decrease glare and lens flare.

Generally speaking, you should use the hood as often as possible. There are obvious (or not so obvious) exceptions of course.

[Ironman11]

In addition to what everyone has said, it also protects your lens in a way. While taking football shots, a sweaty player has walked into my lens. Thanks to the lens hood, the only thing it did was hit the hood, as opposed to smearing my lens with sweat (and wouldnt that be fun to clean!) Besides that protection, it also helps keep stray dust away from the lens.