Oh, you ,mean like your would-be Internet legend that Nikon stockpiled the SE prism housings for the past 10 years and when they feel the need to update the coatings, they only make new EPs and objectives and their housings, and screw them on the old prism housings, so that the serial #s bear no relationship with the year the models were manufactured because the prism housings were all produced at the same time. Now that was a real whopper! Fortunately, it didn't attain legendary status because apparently no-one believed it.
No, if I'm going to claim dubious credit, it would have to be for creating a more plausible and therefore successful Internet legend, namely, that early lead-free glass was not up to par with lead glass (as OHARA admitted in two technical papers) and that this sub-par glass caused roofs at the turn of the century (2000) to show more false color than their lead glass predecessors, which is why there was an uptick in reports of CA at the time, and subsequently, why ED glass was added to roofs.
I've seen my comments in one form and another quoted all over the place. Perhaps it's not true, though OHARA did state that its early lead-free glass for microscopes created more CA at the extreme ends of the spectrum for photographic microscopy, but it never said if any of that early glass was used in sports optics. Whatever the case, my theory achieved bona fided Internet legend status. :smoke:
I also took a lot of flak from those who believed that no optical glass company would release glass that wasn't read for "prime time." But then I pointed out all the other glitches that came out on bins that were later fixed such as the meat clever strap lugs on the original Victories, the many, many EDG I's manufactured with loose focuser knobs, the 820 Audubon eyecups that were "not made for human eyes," etc. Those examples and more do not prove OHARA or any other glass company released sub-par lead free glass in sports optics, but if they did for microscopes, it at least seems plausible.
In any case, my theory has since been replaced by a theory that it was the internal focusing element in roofs, introduced around the same time as lead-free glass, that was the true culprit behind the increase in CA in roofs.
My hyperbole about the "micro-stabilization" above was in reference to the lucky dudes who Swaro took on a trip to Extremadura who said that the 12x50s SV ELs were as easy to hold steady as the 10x50s. Not in my shaky hands they wouldn't, but maybe in "coolhand68's".
Brock