I had the 16-35 and the hood was not much use on my 1.6 crop. Lens flare is part of owning a lens, but there's more to flare then meets the eye.
A good article on the subject
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/co...03-01-12.shtml A little more here
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/flare.shtml