Front lens coating importance?

[eumenius]

I was thinking about it by myself, so I want to ask the people - what do you think about the importance of flawless coating presence on a front lens of, say, Symmar-type lens (given the coatings on all inner surfaces and rear element are in perfect state)? Unless I'm much mistaken, the front lens coating should be not too important in terms of optics, as the light reflections from it should just go into space and not back in a film plane, no? If some from inner coatings are bad, then we get a defnite negative thing - too much light scattering inside the lens, fogging and reduced contrast all over the field. It looks to me that the front lens coating is not all this important for a better brilliance - if I'm wrong, correct me Of course the front lens coating should influence color rendition somehow, but is its effect comparable in size with overall color shift of the lens?? So I think that if the front element of complex lens has lost its coating fully or it has some serious flaws, and the lens itself is not scratched badly, the overall effect of coating loss should not be too pronounced on a sharpness and contrast of the picture. What do you think about it?

PS. And there are fully uncoated lenses that work quite well, even with color slide film...

 

[bohica]

was reading some test the other day, wish i could remember where, the results were that only the back lens coating was really important and that the difference in single and multi coatings were minimal

 

[glennfromwy]

Based on the fact that coating increases light transmission by reducing internal reflections between the glass surfaces, I would have to agree that the front coating would probably be of limited benefit. I have an Aero Ektar that had a very badly damaged front coating. I am almost finished polishing it off. I can plainly see a huge difference in the image projected onto the ground glass and would be greatly surprised if the missing coating will have any effect at all. For anyone thinking about removing a coating by hand, I can tell you, it's a LOT of rubbing.