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multicoated vs fullycoated |
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littlevineyard1
Optics GrassHopper Joined: March/10/2008 Location: williamsport,pa Status: Offline Points: 35 |
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Posted: April/16/2008 at 12:51 |
i have been asked with some frequency about the difference between these two coating systems by many shooters veteran and new. i would like to pose this question to the forum for everyones benifit: all other factors being equal which method would give the greatest optical advantage, a scope with mu;ticoated lenses or a scope with fully coated lenses? these terms are in our optical vocabulary now, where they were not before and i hope we can clear this up for some shooters. what does the forum think?
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littlevineyard1
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jonbravado
Optics Master Joined: October/05/2006 Status: Offline Points: 1131 |
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fully multicoated is better - it reflects more stray light, and accepts more of the good light through.
J
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jonbravado
Optics Master Joined: October/05/2006 Status: Offline Points: 1131 |
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doh - didn't read well enough -
i would say multicoated is better - for the above reasons.
J Edited by jonbravado - April/16/2008 at 14:57 |
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littlevineyard1
Optics GrassHopper Joined: March/10/2008 Location: williamsport,pa Status: Offline Points: 35 |
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thank-you for the input but not fullymulticoated just multicoated or fully coated as some brands are one of the above but not both
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littlevineyard1
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trigger29
Optics Master Extraordinaire X = 180 Y = 90 (X+Pyro)+(Y-Pyro) = ? Joined: September/29/2007 Location: South Dakota Status: Offline Points: 4353 |
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Coated - A single layer on at least one lens surface.
Fully Coated - A single layer on all air to glass surfaces. Multi-Coated - Multiple layers on at least one lens surface. Fully Multi-Coated - Multiple layers on all air to glass surfaces. As to Fully Coated vs. Multi-Coated I am not sure, I would think Multicoated, but you are possibly getting only 1 lense with coating, where as fully coated you get all lenses coated, but only 1 coating. Easiest way for me to look at it, is only buy Fully Multi-Coated optics. Sorry I can't be more help. You may look in Chris's Rifle Scope School thread for more answers.
Edited by trigger29 - April/16/2008 at 16:29 |
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littlevineyard1
Optics GrassHopper Joined: March/10/2008 Location: williamsport,pa Status: Offline Points: 35 |
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thank-you to all who replied and nice explanation trigger29. it gets confusing at times and i understand why some shooters are baffled. Leupolds rifleman scope is fullycoated and the vx1 is multicoated, which is best? i don't know. the bushnell 3200series is multicoated and the legend series is fullymulticoated, does that make the Legend better?and all burris scopes are fully multicoated and the 3200 series is supposibly better. one can see where alot of shooters get confused, anymore thoughts?
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littlevineyard1
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Ed Connelly
Optics Retard God of no Chihuahua Joined: December/16/2007 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 24225 |
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Squeezer Ed
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8shots
Optics Jedi Knight Lord Of The Flies Joined: March/14/2007 Location: South Africa Status: Offline Points: 6253 |
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The more coatings on a lens the better. Different layers of coatings effect different spectrums of light. This is why the top brands fully multi-coat lenses. Of course the type and quality of the coating is all important. White PVA paint does not work so well, for example.
So, what’s the difference between “single” and “multi” coating?
Multicoating is significantly more efficient, and slower and more expensive to achieve, than single coating, but the principles and the basic process are the same. The basic difference comes down to refractive index. A single coating must have a refractive index about halfway between those of glass and air, and it took a number of years to find a suitable material in Magnesium Fluoride. To apply multiple coatings with similar effect, they must be of materials with an even progression of refractive indices, calculated to correspond to the number of layers desired. For example, if you want to apply 5 layers, you would need 5 different materials with indices of roughly 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 to span the range between air (1.0) and glass (1.6). From here on, the process is the same as with the single coating, except that each layer is made a slightly different thickness from the others, with the thicknesses selected to correspond to several different wavelengths within the visible spectrum so that the suppressive effect applies not only at the 550nm center but across the whole range. A multi-coated lens does not appear as strongly colored as a single coated lens – its general tendency is to appear black by comparison to the blue-violet single coated or silver-grey uncoated lens. This is by design: the purpose of coating is to suppress reflections, and the purpose of multi-coating is to suppress ALL reflections. How much better is multi-coating than single coating? The difference between single- and multi-coating is not as great as that between an uncoated and a single coated lens; the single layer of coating deals with the majority of the reflections, and multi-coating is a refinement to further improve its effectiveness. However, the difference becomes significant when there are a large number of reflective surfaces in the lens. In complex wide angles and zooms, the multi-coated lens will perform significantly better than the single coated equivalent. It could be said that the difference between a coated and an uncoated lens in a simple design such as a Tessar is comparable to the difference between a single- and a multi-coated lens in a zoom. There are also, of course, different degrees of multi-coating with different levels of effectiveness: the more layers there are and the more different wavelengths can be optimized, the better the performance of the multi-coating will be. One last, unrelated question: Does coating make a lens “color-corrected”? No. Color correction is a function of the optical design of the lens, and is not affected in any way by coating. Color correction is the property of a lens that causes all colors to focus at the same point, and it is accomplished to varying degrees in both coated and uncoated lenses. It is important to both color and black & white photography, as a poorly color corrected lens will not render critically sharp images in black & white – but it is more visible in a color image, because poor color correction can be seen in the form of red and blue fringes at white/black interfaces in the color image. |
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mercenary1947
Optics Master ** Joined: April/02/2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1392 |
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8shots ..... Whew ..... ... ! Now this man knows his stuff .... as the old saying goes . One lil addon ..... the color correctness also depends on the chemical/mineral makeup of the materials used to create the lenses .
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littlevineyard1
Optics GrassHopper Joined: March/10/2008 Location: williamsport,pa Status: Offline Points: 35 |
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WHEW!!!!!! I guess that pretty well cleared everything right up thanks for the very technical and professional advice. i am sure the forum readers now know what optical coatings are all about
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littlevineyard1
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pyro6999
Optics Retard OT TITAN Joined: December/22/2006 Location: North Dakota Status: Offline Points: 22034 |
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the link that trigger posted is a great tool and chris did a great job putting it together for all of us to use.
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