Why the Best Camera Monitor Hoods Are Flexible TPU, 3D Printed to Fit
What sets these camera monitor hoods apart is not a feature list, it is the material and how they are made: flexible TPU, 3D printed to slide or stretch-fit the exact shape of your monitor. You already know your camera, so finding the right hood is the easy part. The point worth understanding is why a flexible, 3D-printed hood outperforms the rigid, fold-flat alternatives, and why that design is only possible because of how we manufacture it. All hoods are made in Australia and priced between $25 and $49 AUD.
In this article
- What actually makes a monitor hood better?
- The flexibility you cannot see in a photo
- How 3D printing makes this design possible
- Find the hood for your camera
- Frequently asked questions
A flexible TPU hood, 3D printed to the exact geometry of the monitor it fits.
What actually makes a monitor hood better?
Every monitor hood does the same basic job: shade the screen so you can judge focus, framing and exposure in daylight. As a working professional, you are not looking for a sales pitch on that. What actually separates a good hood from a forgettable one is two things: the material it is made from, and whether it was designed for your specific monitor or adapted from something generic.
That is where our hoods are deliberately different. Each one is engineered in flexible TPU and 3D printed around the exact shape of a single camera or monitor. No straps, no foam, no universal box that almost fits. The result installs in seconds and holds on like it was part of the kit, because in a sense it was built to be.
The flexibility you cannot see in a photo
A still image makes a hood look like a rigid plastic box. It is not. TPU is a rubber-like engineering material, and the hoods are genuinely flexible in the hand. That flexibility is the whole design cue: instead of clips and hinges, the hood simply stretches or slides over your monitor and grips it, using the screen's own edges or hook points to stay put. There is no hardware to fit and nothing to break.
The same property makes them tough. TPU deforms and re-forms over and over, so you can fold the hood on itself, bury it in a packed bag, or sit a lens on it, and it springs back to shape. There is one honest trade-off, and we are happy to put it plainly: these hoods are not designed to fold flat for storage. That is the deliberate cost of a one-piece flexible design, and in return you get a hood that installs faster, survives more abuse, and stays reliable shoot after shoot.
How 3D printing makes this design possible
This kind of hood simply cannot be made cheaply the traditional way, and that is the part worth understanding. Mass-produced accessories are injection moulded, which means cutting an expensive steel tool for every part. That only pays off at huge volumes and pushes designs toward simple, generic, rigid shapes. It is why so many hoods are one-size-fits-most boxes held on with elastic.
3D printing removes the tooling entirely, and that changes what is possible:
- Made for one monitor, exactly. With no mould to pay off, we can model each hood around the precise geometry of a single screen, including its curves, buttons and hook points, so the fit is engineered rather than approximated.
- Complex shapes in one piece. Printing builds the part layer by layer, so a stretch-fit lip, the side walls and the exact shade length are all one continuous piece. No assembly, no hinges, no fasteners to loosen.
- Printed directly in flexible TPU. We can manufacture in a rubber-like engineering material that hard injection plastics cannot match, which is what gives the hood its slide-on flex and its durability.
- Fast to refine. A design is digital, so we can dial in tolerances and release improved revisions quickly rather than re-cutting a tool.
- Viable for niche and brand-new cameras. Because there is no minimum run, it is worth making a precision hood for cameras the big brands ignore, including models that launched last month like the Nikon ZR.
In short, the flexible, precision-fit design is not a happy accident. It is the direct result of 3D printing in TPU, made to order here in Australia.
Find the hood for your camera
You do not need us to tell you which hood to buy. Find your camera, and if we make a hood for it, it will fit. Here are a few of the most popular, starting with our best seller.
Our most popular hood, with more than 500 sold. Snaps onto the FX6's own hook points, 70mm of shade at just 39 grams. Regular or Full Snoot.
The FX6 hood is the clearest example of the design working as intended, and our customers tell the story better than we can.
"I teach a digital cinematography class where we ship over 100 FX6 cameras every month to students around the world. These FX6 hoods (both the regular and the snoot) are one of the first things we tell all students they should purchase. Using the snoot when shooting outdoors in bright daylight is a game changer."
The same flexible TPU design sized for the FX3's built-in LCD. Run both bodies? There is an FX6 and FX3 combo.
One snap-fit hood that covers both the Atomos Shinobi 5 inch monitor and the Ninja V recorder.
A precision hood for a camera barely on the shelves, exactly the kind of model 3D printing lets us support early.
This is only a sample. We make hoods for many more cameras, including the DJI Ronin 4D (covered in our Ronin 4D accessories guide), several Canon Cinema EOS bodies and more. Browse the full range and find your exact model.
Frequently asked questions
Why are your monitor hoods flexible rather than rigid?
They are printed in TPU, a rubber-like engineering material. The flexibility is the design: instead of clips or hinges, the hood stretches or slides onto your monitor and grips it directly, so it installs in seconds with no hardware and nothing to break.
Why are the hoods not foldable, and is that a problem?
It is a deliberate trade-off. A one-piece flexible hood holds its moulded shape, so it does not fold flat for storage like some cheaper hoods. In exchange you get faster installation, a more precise fit, and far better durability. Because TPU deforms and re-forms, you can still pack it tight without damaging it.
How does 3D printing make a better monitor hood?
Traditional injection moulding needs an expensive steel tool per part, which forces generic, rigid, high-volume shapes. 3D printing has no tooling, so each hood can be modelled around the exact geometry of one monitor, printed in one piece in flexible TPU, refined quickly, and produced even for niche or brand-new cameras.
Are 3D-printed TPU hoods durable enough for professional use?
Yes. TPU is an impact-resistant elastomer that returns to shape after being bent, squashed or packed. With no rigid panels to crack and no hinges to fatigue, a printed TPU hood is one of the most durable and reliable designs you can run on set.
Do you make a hood for my camera?
Most likely. We cover popular Sony, Atomos, Nikon, Canon and DJI monitors and add new models regularly, which is only practical because 3D printing needs no tooling. Search your camera in the monitor hood range to check.
Find the hood for your monitor
Flexible, 3D-printed TPU monitor hoods, engineered to fit your exact camera or monitor. Find your model in the full range.
Browse all monitor hoods →Designed and made by film crew, for film crew.