Multi Coated Enlarging Lenses???

[Neil Poulsen]

I just saw a reference in the archives suggesting that enlarging lenses aren't multi-coated. Is this true? If so, why? I would think that reducing flare would be a great thing for enlarging lens?

 

[ic-racer]

Most (or all) of mine are multicoated. From the Schneider site:

High-performance is a challenge that must
be met on a continuing basis. This require-
ment is met by selecting lens elements made
of high-grade glass, adding proprietary
multilayer coatings to the finished lenses,
and assembling them in a high-quality lens
mount. The ability to manufacture high-quality
lenses year after year have established
Schneider as a dependable supplier of pro-
fessional enlarging lenses world wide.

 

[AgX]

The more elements, the more important any anti-reflective means becomes (to put it very simple).

This should be apropriate for all kind of lenses.

 

[domaz]

The older ones aren't of course. Probably back in the day before people could easily afford a Rodagon or Nikkor it was common to use older cheap enlarger lenses that were single coated.

 

[Chazzy]

Frankly, I've never thought about this before. For how long have Rodagons, Componon-S, and Nikon enlarging lenses been multicoated? I've just assumed that any lenses that are at all recent are multicoated, but that might be a dangerous assumption.

 

[Neil Poulsen]

ic-racer,

good point. i should have checked the Schneider site. sure makes sense to me.

thanks

 

[Randy Stewart]

Although "multi-coating" was invented by Zeiss in the early 1940s, it didn't make it into camera lens general usage until the mid-1970s [when Pentax figured out a cost-effective manufacturing technique]. On a 4 or 6 element enlarging lens, by design not subject to use with flaring light sources, its practical image impact over single-coat usage is nearly insignificant. It was probably introduced more for marketing purposes than performance, although multicoated lenses should produce slightly higher printing contrast.

 

[Ian Grant]

Multi coating wasn't invented by Zeiss.

But Zeiss were definitely heavily coating some lenses before WWII.I've seen a coated 1939 150mm Tessar.

However I think Taylor, Taylor, Hobson (Cooke) in the UK were ahead in coating technology.

Ian

 

[John R.]

I think Randy was speaking about true interference coatings for things like UV and such, and in that regard he is correct it was Zeiss but if memory serves it was sometime even earlier on. Taylor and Hobson may have had some advancements in coatings but Zeiss was an earlier purveyor. I don't know when or by who an actual coating was invented by for a piece of glass. Maybe the Zeiss website would have info on that.

 

[Kirk Keyes]

I just saw a reference in the archives suggesting that enlarging lenses aren't multi-coated. Is this true?

Neil - it just goes to show that one can't trust everything they read on the Interweb. Even if it is on APUG...

:^)

Kirk

 

[Jim Jones]

Multicoating is far more beneficial on camera lenses than on enlarging lenses because cameras are often pointed into light sources far brighter than any encountered in the darkroom.

 

[ic-racer]

More specifically the gamma of negatives is usually less than one. In fact it is more like 0.6 to 0.7, so they always have less contrast than the original scene.