how big of a difference do lens coatings make?

[midwest_gearhead]

Everyone talks about glass being better or worse than something else. Anyone here have intimate knowledge of lens coatings and how they affect performance?

 

[SHTF]

Im definitely no expert but Ive found some great reference material to educate yourself that I think youd enjoy. Here you go.

http://www.nikon.com/products/sportoptics/how_to/guide/binoculars/technologies/technologies_05.htm

The left side links on that page tells alot about Lense coatings and how they help in Optics.

This little video also helps you understand what the different technologies help when looking through optics.

http://www.vortexoptics.com/video/ed_glass

And talking about Chromatic Aberration and what it is and how it affects your view can be read up about here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_aberration

And here is a great article I found to be informative about the subject Not sure who this author is or his level of knowledge but was definitely informative.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/binocular_basics.htm

Again No expert. But these bits of material helped me understand alot more about Optics and what works and works even better.

Always good to educate yourself especially when your making a high value purchase. Understanding what the differences are and how they affect your view is definitely recommended before dropping thousands of dollars on good optics.

 

[BRobertson]

I have a pair of Zeiss 8x30 BGA, the individual focus, green armored binocs that I got in 1979. Many good memories with them!! At the time, they were the first truly waterproof binocs and were an incredible optic for their time!!
I sent them to Zeiss for refurb a couple of months ago, and they replaced the lenses with newer generation coatings.
They have always been very, very clear, but if I got any bright light coming from the side, or front, I would have glare issues.
I have to say that the new lenses have really made a big difference in my limited testing so far!! I need to get them out into some actual hunting situations, and we haven't had much sunlight here lately!!

They are improved to the point that I am considering selling off my new Zeiss 10x42 HT .

Bob

 

[Shrek]

The coatings are what make the instrument imo. Sit down in a tough optic environment with a top glass with high performance coatings and compared it to an uncoated instrument and you will forever more notice cheap glass and hate it. Good coatings true up colors and highlight contrast while cutting glare and internal reflections. It makes a really big difference in what you can see and pull out of shadows. The lower the light or poorer the conditions the more difference the coating makes.

 

[hunt_or_bust]

Lens coatings are as important if not more important than the glass itself. There is quite a bit of good information out there about it. I've read a couple articles on this subject. I find they are pretty consistently stating that without lens coatings the average bincoular would lose 5-10% of light transmission per lens element. I believe most roof prism binos have like 5-7 lens elements (including the prism) in the housing. So you could see how losing that much light would be a big deal. They also said that with modern day lens coatings some lenses can be allow up 99% of light to pass through the lens. I'm sure this will vary by brand and their proprietary lens coatings, but should give you an idea of how important they are.