Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Some outlandish claims are being made by some on this list regarding multicoating. I have no doubt that Leica and other companies were experimenting with multicoating earlier than the 70s. However, schlepping on coating on top of coating does not constitute "multicoating". True multiple coating, the version ultimately worthy of being called multicoating did not appear until the early 70s. Following is a quote from a recent post by Marc Small to the Hasselblad list: <<snip>> "the earliest use I can determine of multi-coating was on Zeiss technical and scientific gear around 1970, probably on a field-test basis. Both Zeiss and Asahi began to coat camera lenses in '73, and arguments have persisted to this day as to which of them was "first", though I suspect Asahi beat Zeiss by several months; certainly, their advertising was superior! We have evidence of multi-coated, but unmarked, Planar lenses on 2.8F's and 3.5F's from the mid-'70's". <<snip>> Therefore my question is: If Zeiss, the formost authority on optical science, did not produce multicoated lenses until the early-mid 70s how could anyone else? Joseph