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can lenses be recoated


dave b

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I shoot 8X10 non-professionally, and have been collecting lens for it for two years, I now have two. I had a 19 inch Red Dot Artar (Goerz) mounted in shutter by Mr Grimes last year. There are many used barrel lens on the market and fairly cheap but some have condition problems. Is there any company that recoats optics? Is this an avenue worth exploring?
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Take a look at the following link:

 

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http://www.wisner.com/coatings.htm

 

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Wisner suggests several reasons why it may be impractical to coat

older lenses. Given this, I would use the lens first to better

understand the implications of shooting with uncoated optics. If you

contact print 8x10 in black and white, you may not notice significant

differences. If you do, some of these may be addressed through changes

in development or by using a lenshood. I've also read posts on this

forum which suggested the use of a polarizer or other filtration. I

don't shoot color so I'm not sure what the exact consequences are.

Obviously, other "condition" problems (slow shutter speeds, sticky

apertures, dirt, etc.) are more easily addressed and it looks like you

found a good source (SK Grimes) to deal with these.

 

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....................................

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Unless you have a rare or very unusual lens, it is usually more

economical to purchase a more modern lens than to coat an uncoated

lens, or to purchase a single-coated lens in better condition than to

have a lens recoated. If I remember correctly, there is a shop in

Colorado that does recoating, and if you hunt around, you can find

their website, which explains the process.

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I agree with those who've already said that it's not really an

economical proposition. The coating itself isn't an expensive process

these days; opticians offer AR coatings on spectacle lenses as a

matter of routine; but preparing a surface that's been previously

coated means that it has to be repolished. This <i>is</i> a time

consuming and expensive process that has to be done expertly.<br>A

small amount of genuine coating damage on a lens usually looks far

worse than any harm it does to the image contrast. Unfortunately the

term "some coating damage" seems to be a euphemism for "scratched to

bits by careless cleaning", in lens selling parlance.

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After seeing this post I was intrigued so I e-mailed the company in

Colorado that specializes in this and asked about having my uncoated

(but otherwise excellent) 14" Dagor coated. Here is his response:

***********************

It would run about $900.00. It usually runs $150 per surface and you

have four surfaces. $225 to separate a triplet,re-cement,center,

cure, etc. and you have two, that's $1050.00 .

 

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We are really set up to repair lenses, say a Zeiss 50 Distagon for a

Hasselblad. That lens is worth $1200-$1500. We remove the front

element and polish & re-coat it at $175.00. That is worth it.

 

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We also do 80/2.8 Planars for Rolleiflex cameras, and the front

elements are cemented doublets. We de-cement,polish,re-coat &

re-cement for $275.00. The camera is worth $800, so that is worth it

also.

 

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We have been doing this since 1981 and have yet to polish & re-coat

an entire lens system.

--

John Van Stelten

Focal Point Inc.

1017 South Boulder Road

Suite E-2

Louisville, Co 80027

Phone: 303/665-6640

Fax: 303/665-3803

Web-Site: www.focalpointlens.com

Email: john@focalpointlens.com

*********************************

 

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Cheers!

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