Re: [Leica] Multicoating

[D Khong <dkhong@pacific.net.sg>]

At 04:04 AM 1/2/98 -0500, you wrote:
>At 11:56 PM 30-01-98 -0800, you wrote:
>>
>>No filter available is multicoated like a Leica lens is multicoated. ANY
>>filter you can buy WILL give you flare, ghosting, double images, etc. under
>>many (seemingly normal) circumstances. Read Leica document #920-083.
>>
>>Jim
>
>No, ANY filter WILL NOT give you flare, ghosting, double images, etc. UNDER
>MANY (SEEMINGLY NORMAL) CIRCUMSTANCES.  I don't care about Leica document
>1234-5678.  The original poster wanted to see actual evidence, not your
>opinions or some document.  I use UV filter 100% of the time.  I NEVER SEE
>ANY EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE ON MY LENS.  I put them there to protect them.
>I don't want to see eny effect of the filter in my pictures.  And after 10
>years of using my M6 (and 30 years of using other camera makes), I haven't.
> If a lens such as my 90 tele-elmarit, which is prone to flare, is pointed
>into the sun, I will get flare, with or without a filter.  With a lens like
>my 75 Summilux, I never see flare, regardless of where I point it.  But
>I'll be damned if I'm going to let tree sap, and other environmental shit
>cover the surface of my $2000 Summilux, as it periodically does to the $50
>filter I have sitting in front of it.
>
>Like the original poster asked, please show me (photographs, not documents)
>the flare, double images, ghosting, whatever, caused by UV filters.
>
>Dan C.
>

Dan,

I agree with what you have just said.  I have been using UV filters on my
lenses for umpteen years and over this period of time, this practice has
protected my front elements not so much from physical damage but from
environmental stuffs like rain, dust, dirt, grit, saliva, oil droplets from
stir fried Chinese cooking, exhaust dirt, fingerprints (expecially when you
have a toddler at home), and countless other unexpected, uninvited and
unwanted "coatings" on your front element.  Sure,  the front elements are
durable and one can clean them often (I'm not too sure about one's ability
to tackle those microscopic oil droplets from Chinese cooking though).
Short of the extra palpitations that I experience leaving the front element
naked, I have not actually noted any deterioration in my photographs from
using UV filters.  In fact, with the assurance that my UV filter will be
there to take the first hit, I am more daring in taking the kind of shots
that others will think twice about doing.

Dan K.