Bubble in Summitar 50/2 common?

[syuji_honda]

I went to a camera repair store to pick up my Summitar and Industar-

22. I saw some dust inside and asked the repair person. He said

these were bubbles inside the glasses. He said that old lenses such

as Summitar 50/2 have bubbles inside the glasses.

 

Does anybody have the same experience?

[lee hamiel]

Yes

 

Both with a Summarit & Summitar a few tiny bubbles

 

Used to be considered a sign of good glass

[terry_rory]

Miniscule bubbles in my Zeiss Planar.

 

Seen them in many lenses from Minolta, Nikon, Contax and a Canadian (1984) Summicron 50/2. It is common.

[john_boyle3]

There is a very small one in my Tele Elmarit. The only reported effect is an inconsequential light loss.

[frank granovski]

I always check for bubbles when I buy a lens. You should too. One time I looked through the glass of this used but pristine Sony adaptor lens and I saw a booze party going on. I quickly put it down and ran away.

[james_elwing]

I think you overreacted, Frank; relax; walk, dont run.

Bubbles in Summitars are as common as muck. They don't occur as often in slower vintage lenses 'cos the glass was easier to make. They can however be a good but essentially unfair bargaining tool to get a lower price.

[Rob F.]

This used to be an FAQ in monthly camera magazines, long before anyone knew what FAQ meant. Time was that the manufacturers didn't know how to prevent the bubbles from forming. Leitz, Zeiss, et. al. had them. We were told, as Lee recalls, that this meant we were getting high quality glass. Probably Madison avenue marketing hype, but we believed it. Today we don't seem to see bubbles in our lenses (a sign of inferior glass, according to the same reasoning-but not really).

 

In any case, the area occupied by a bubble is so small compared to the rest of the lens, that the effect, if any, was certainly minimal.

[jeremy_tok]

I've not seen a buble in any of the (many) lenses I own. And I have 20-ish eyesight.

[gabrielma]

Yes; what Lee said (ditto).

[kelly_flanigan1]

What if folks found a bubble in a beer? :)

[frank granovski]

What if you don't drink beer?

[mskovacs]

Rob F, it was not marketing hype. High index crown glass requires high temperatures and extended slow cooling to allow bubbles to completely disperse. Back in the day, a careful balance had to be struck between destroying the crucibles and bubble dispersion, hence cooling times were necessarily reduced at the cost of a few inconsequential bubbles.

 

Advances in materials science have now provided crucibles that can survive the extended heat exposure required to extend cooling time.

[syuji_honda]

Thanks everybody.

 

I also found additional info from google search. I'm relieved that

it's a pfoof of the vintage lens using high quality rare earth

material.

[kelly_flanigan1]

The various glass types have different temperature values where one must cool at a radically reduced rate. This adds to the cost of the more exotic glasses. The price can vary 1:100; 1:300 etc. One also gets less lenses per pound with the exotic denser glass types.

[icuneko]

Bubbles in lenses show they are special edition Champagne lenses.

Rare and extremely valuable.