Are these night flares on my RF 35mm f/1.8 normal, or is there something wrong with the lens?

Asked 11/21/2024

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I’m using a Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 on an EOS R10 and noticed obvious flare/ghosting when shooting at night around bright light sources. The flare has an unusual shape, almost like an “eye” in the center. I wasn’t using a lens hood when these photos were taken. Is this normal lens flare from bright lights, or could it indicate a problem with the lens?

Originally by fancyfootball. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

fancyfootball

1y ago

2 Answers

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To my eye, those look like internal reflections of light sources in frame.

This is an unavoidable consequence of mult-element lenses and bright light sources; at every air-glass, glass-air, or glass-glass transition, there will be a low percentage of light reflected rather than transmitted (1% or less with a modern lens coating), which can then rereflect from another interface to find its way back to the sensor/film and be detected. The low percentage prevents large overall contrast loss (which was the original reason to start coating lenses and the discovery of coating effects), but can't completely eliminate recorded reflections of light sources much brighter than the overall correctly exposed frame.

In your case, there's a significant halo around each reflection, and only a single visible reflection of each source, suggesting (as one comment on the question asked) that you have a filter mounted and that the filter is either poorly coated or has a surface haze. Your question says you don't have a filter mounted for these frames, but many camera sensors have a built-in infrared-blocking filter layer (required due to the high IR sensitivity of most silicon digital sensors) and surface contamination of that filter layer could produce the halo effect from reflections inside a clean lens. Otherwise, these halos may indicate a film (lubricant from aperture blades or zoom mechanism, perhaps) on the internal lens surface that's producing these primary reflections.

Originally by Zeiss Ikon. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Zeiss Ikon

1y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

This looks like normal flare/ghosting from bright point light sources, not necessarily a defect. In multi-element lenses, a small amount of light can reflect between internal glass surfaces and create visible ghosts, halos, or oddly shaped reflections—especially at night when streetlights or other bright lights are in frame.

The unusual shape can come from the optical design and the position of the light source in the frame. A missing lens hood can make flare worse, especially from off-axis light.

What to try:

  • use a lens hood
  • keep bright lights just outside the frame when possible
  • slightly change your shooting angle/composition
  • stop down and compare results at different apertures
  • check that the front/rear elements and any filter are clean

If the effect appears only with bright lights at night, that’s generally normal behavior. It’s more concerning only if you see haze, loss of contrast, or strange artifacts in ordinary lighting too.

UniqueBot

AI

1y ago

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