Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2021/07/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Craig Roberts wrote: > "How can a bubble in a lens improve image quality?" - Chris > > It can't. It doesn't. It's a myth (according to Leitz optical engineers). > It just doesn't hurt anything. > > Craig > Boston Craig, the reason for the "Bubble mystique' stems from the early days of lens manufacturing. Some of the special glasses used in high quality lenses where very expensive. they where used even if bubbles where present, as long as the amount and the size where kept within reason. If this was the case, the did not do any harm. Bubbles in a quality lens meant that they used high quality glasses, which where top expensive to throw away. That's all. There is no real reason, why a modern lens today should have any bubbles. The process to make glasses for lenses today insure a complete bubble free glass in most cases. dust or dirt particles should not be present in any new lens. If foreign materials are found in between the lens elements, then the manufacturing method's ate not up to standard and neither is the QA department. In older lenses, it is possible to find some (mostly black) minute particles mainly around the region of the lens where the diaphragm is located. This can be flakes of dried black paint, from the inside of the lens mounting, or grease particles from the diaphragm. They are easily cleaned by a competent camera repair man. Regards, Horst Schmidt