Does SX10 include a lens hood?

Is a lens hood lincluded in the box? Or do you have to buy one separately? If separate, can I buy a generic hood to save $ ? If so, how do I shop for a hood to ensure that it will fit? I'm sure the diameter is important, but how does it attach? Different attachment schemes? I would like a hood that can be installed backwards to make it fit into the camera bag more easily, and when not in use. Can all hoods do this? Finally, how about using the lens cap when the hood is installed? Thanks in advance!!

Yes, it comes with a lens cover. There is no way to keep it attached to the camera; I am thinking about attaching a cord to the face of the lens cover with epoxy, if I can find a method that does not look ugly, then again, ugly is better than missing.

My camera did not have a memory card in the box. I visited Canon's web site and a memory card was not listed as part of what came in the box with the camera. You can find 4GB and 8GB memory cards at newegg.com

I purchased a 4GB Sandisk Ultra II and 8GB Transcend [both SDHC]

I timed 329 .JPG images that totaled 983MB, time to complete the write:
SanDisk Ultra II: 1 minute 22 seconds
Transcend: 2 minutes 5 seconds

Class 6 guarantees 6MB/sec and the Transcend delivers 7.864 megabytes per second. The SanDisk Ultra II does even better, delivering almost 12MB/sec.

Like Dan said, the lens hood does come with the camera, but in general its kind of worthless. The lens cap will go on with the lens hood on at the same time, and its attached via specific threading. I wouldn't go about attaching it with epoxy, if Canon though it was possible to leave the lens hood attached while the lens was retracted I think they would. Plus you can seriously screw up the lens mechanism by accident. Finally, I say the hood is worthless, because at some of the wider settings the hood gets in the way of the picture and cuts off the sides. If you're taking tighter pictures you could use it I suppose, but in general I'd try to make do without it. Also, if you found a third party lens that matched the threading and had a wider opening, you'd be able to use it.

Lens hood and Lens cover are two different items designed to perform different functions.

Lens hood prevents stray lights from entering the lens thereby lowering the clarity of the picture.
Lens cover covers the lens totally and doesn't allow light to go through. It is mainly used to protect the lens when the camera is not in use.

The question is " Does XS10 include a lens hood "
The answer is no it doesn't.
Only expensive lenses sold separately comes with free lens hood, and such hoods can be mounted the other way round, to save space during storage.

You will find lens hood commonly used for dSLRs, but not in compacts and superzoom like SX10 is.

Oh yea I see it. The one with a ' flower shape' is the lens hood.
Must tell my neighbor to claim it from the vendor because he bought the camera without the hood.
Now I feel bad for telling him he can get it cheaper in the shop.

Yeah, some vendors unbox the camera, and sell each of the parts separately, so it looks like you're getting the camera really cheap, but then when you add up everything that should be in the box, then you end up paying more. A lot of internet retailers do this, and its a complete rip off. Or maybe he just got unlucky, and bought a return without the lens hood, or has a rare package without it (by accident, of course), who knows.

Thanks guys. I now understand that the lens hood SHOULD be included in the kit, and I also understand some vendors unpackage and remove some items. I have heard that swapping out the factory battery pack and sending the customer a generic is something to watch out for, but not with the SX10 since it uses AA's (not a battery pack).

I will be sure to verify with the vendor that the hood IS included (along with everything else that is supposed to be in the box). That's really nice that Canon provides one... that is rare for an accessory like this to be included. I asked only because I have seen the hood in many of the stock pics, but didn't see any mention of it.

Dan -- I understand your point was not to epoxy the lens hood or lens cap to the camera, but rather to epoxy the lens cap to a string, and then tie the string to the camera body (neck strap eyelet) as a way to make your own tether. I would be looking to do the same thing. I'm thinking that a small plastic anchor, with a hole in it, could be superglued to the outside of the lens cap pretty well, and not look too bad. Maybe I can find something small enough in the kid's Lego set !!

bukit97... please be careful when responding if you don't know the answer for sure.

Aditya... do you know if the hood can be mounted backwards (petals facing the camera body, instead of shading the lens), in order to make it easier to store inside a camera bag?

Thanks guys!! Can't wait to get the new camera. I'm waiting until a bit closer to xmas, hoping the price might drop some. Do you think it is likely to see a price drop between now and mid-Dec ?

You can mount the hood on backwards, when the lens is extended, but I think when the lens is retracted you will not be able to screw the hood on backward, so you'll have to store it separately (this is what I gather from users, I've never actually tried it myself, but I think that its right). Anyway, bukit is also a very knowledgeable user, and its easy to overlook things like a lens hood. Often times, we have two experts respond per question just to double check, and also sometimes to provide two opinions. Hope this helps.

looking at the positive side, Bukit has done a lot of people a favor by not making sure he scores every time he decides to answer a question.
if he does, he probably will sweep away all the points and many will be frustrated and say Bukit might as well take over the Q&A himself.

lets hope Bukit keeps his share of the points below 10% and let others have a go. Better still if he based more of his answers on in- complete sets and defective sets, then others will be more chances of scoring points. LOL

bukit97,

Thank you for your post. I made a typo, my first sentence was supposed to address lens hood, not cover. I intended to follow with a remark about the lens cover and include comments about the lens cover.

I wanted to address areas of interest to prospective buyers, what came in the box, such as no memory card, and both the cover and hood, as the cover can be lost.

You can mount the lens hood backwards with the lens retracted. It is a bayonet-type mount. Really nice, actually.

Ofcourse, lens hood is inlcuded in the box .. I dont think it was an important question to ask