Does What its supposed to..
This item does what its supposed to and having the Canon name and quality backing it is a plus.

An alternative to a UV or neutral density filter for protection
The Canon ES-62 lens hood is a good investment for those who plan or think they will shoot a lot with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II. I have had it on since the day I unpackaged my EF 50mm lens and it makes my Canon XTi "appear" more balanced too. I have never bought a hood for my kit lens, but I wish I had as stray dust usually found its way onto the front lens element (EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II). When I had purchased a single-coat UV filter instead for my kit lens, I found it very difficult to clean off the debris, even with special lens cleaning kits, without somehow leaving smears or scratches over the filter's surface. After awhile I just removed the UV and stopped using it, afraid of the loss of image quality through the use of a smudged/hard-to-care-for UV filter. Good thing I've always had this lens hood on my EF 50mm f/1.8 II.

The hood is attached by first installing the ring hood adapter onto the camera lens, then followed by securing the hard plastic hood onto the ring adapter (which feels like metal by the way) by pushing on two tabs on the hood itself. The hood is deep enough to keep out any dust on the lens. Even during those times when I forget to replace the stock lens cap. With this lens hood, once I'm done snapping photos, I can attach the stock lens cap back onto the hood adapter ring (perfect fit), stow away my camera and move on.

half the price of my lens.......
a perfectly good hood for the lens.... it just cost me 1/2 the price of the lens. Canon is ridiculous.

Eh...it works
It is a minimalist hood. It isn't a pedal because the lens rotates as it zooms. The attaching mechanism requires pressing two buttons which is a bit annoying, as most other hoods can just be twisted off.

A necessary evil?
The lens that this fits on is so cheap I guess Canon could not resist making a little money back on the cover. What are you going to do? You need to protect your glass .... this thing is tiny and comes in two parts, one which screws onto the end of your lens to enable this to clip on.

Its fine now -- was a bit disheartening when I got it in the mail and the box was a little bit thicker than a pack of smokes.