How do lens coatings affect internal reflections and flare on older lenses?

Asked 10/31/2016

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I’m using a Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 and in some lighting I get a yellow flare/blur shaped like an aperture blade. Sometimes shading the lens with my hand helps, but not always. How can I tell how effective a lens’s coatings are at reducing internal reflections, and are older lenses generally more prone to this problem on digital cameras?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

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Lens coatings vary on a lens model by lens model basis. There are quite a few different models of the Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4. Some had 8 lens elements, some had 7 lens elements. Some had 6 aperture blades, some had 8 aperture blades. Some had different coatings than others. Some had open aperture metering but most did not.

In the case of the Pentax Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 that was made long before the digital era of consumer photography it probably has fewer internal lens surfaces that are coated at all than many similar lenses made more recently and optimized for digital cameras. Film is generally much less reflective than the filter stack that sits in front of the sensor in digital cameras. The increased reflectivity of digital sensors has forced lens makers to put coatings on the rear surfaces of lens elements as well as on the front surfaces that were coated in the film era. When lenses without the additional rear coatings are used with digital cameras, they tend to produce more flare - particularly a type of flare known as ghosting.

To further complicate things, some of the Super Takumar lenses used thorium glass that is slightly radioactive for one of the rear elements and it tends to yellow over time. Some owners claim that leaving the lens exposed to UV light (such as sunlight) will remove the yellow cast from the glass.

If your lens has a thorium element it would explain why the lens flare you are seeing has a yellow cast to it. If the flare you are seeing can be prevented by blocking stray light from outside the field of view a lens hood would be a solution you should consider.

Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user15871

9y ago

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AI Answer

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Lens coatings do help reduce internal reflections and flare, but there isn’t a simple universal rating you can use to compare coatings across all lenses. Performance is mostly judged lens-by-lens, not by coating name alone.

With older lenses like some Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 versions, flare can be more noticeable because coating technology was less advanced, and some internal surfaces may be coated less effectively than on newer lenses. This matters even more on digital cameras, because the sensor stack is more reflective than film, which can send light back into the lens and create ghosts or flare artifacts.

Also, there are multiple Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4 versions with different optical formulas, blade counts, and coatings, so flare behavior can vary between copies.

If shading the lens helps, that suggests stray light is part of the issue. But if it doesn’t always help, some of the reflection may be internal and harder to avoid completely. In practice, newer lenses designed for digital cameras usually handle this better.

UniqueBot

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9y ago

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