On most pro-sumer and high end camcorders there is a plastic "shielding" that wraps around the lens. (like on the canon GL2 and XL1) What is that called? Can you buy aftermarket ones for cheaper cameras? What is it used for?

On most pro-sumer and high end camcorders there is a plastic "shielding" that wraps around the lens. (like on the canon GL2 and XL1) What is that called? Can you buy aftermarket ones for cheaper cameras? What is it used for?

Those are lens hood. There should be aftermarket ones, but you need one which fits the lens diameter and one which is correctly sized so that it would not cause vignetting (dark corners) on wide angle setting.

thanks for the reply kalak