Zeiss Jena question

Hi all,

I'm writing from Italy.

I'd like to ask you (if you know how) is possible to know if a lens

(made from Zeiss Jena) is multicoated or not. My new one is a

flektogon 50/4 for pentacon six, in a completly black version.

There's no written MC on the top, but if you look at through the

lens with a lamp behind you can see some different reflexes of

different colours. That's could mean it's an MC lens?

Someone on the WEB told me that some of these lenses were made in

an MC version but without the label MC written on.

Thank you in advance for your information

Eugenio.

Hi Eugenio,

Multicoated Zeiss jena lenses have the *red* MC marking engraved on the front ring of the lens barrel. However, it may very well be that multicoated lenses have been produced without this marking. Generally, if you look into a lens and have bright light (a lamp)reflecting on the lens surface, if you can see this lamp in different colors, that often reveals how many (different) coating layers have been applied.

BTW: non-multicoated optics can be very good lenses too! Some of the best photographers I know do not use multicoated lenses. Multicoating is fine for flare suppression and contrast enhancement, color saturation when working in bright light, but one should always use a shade anyway. Multicoating has no effect in terms of sharpness or resolution.