Coatings fading with time? (1 Viewer)

Hello,

The coatings on the objectives of my Swaro 8.5x42 EL SV dont seem as bright as they once were - as in the colour is not as intense - and I was wondering if this is due to them being a few years old and have therefore been cleaned many times, or if its just me being paranoid? Anyone else notice anything like this?

Cheers

Rich

. I have an ancient Swarovski Porro prism binocular that I bought cheaply because it was well and truly knackered.
It immediately went to a professional repairer for an overhaul and is now quite good but the colours through one barrel are quite different than through the other because on one side the coatings have more or less been worn off externally whereas on the other side they partly remain.

So I'm pretty confident that the colour balance on binoculars and lenses is heavily dependent on the coatings.

Firms like the old Minolta who made 150 types of glasses themselves and were experts at coating used to colour balance the lenses to match and this happens nowadays with the major manufacturers.

I also can usually tell whether the previous owner was right-handed or left-handed from the amount of wear on the external optics coatings.

So if one is colour sensitive I'm sure that coatings or lack of make either slight or considerable differences to what colours you can see.

It is also that our colour sensitivity can change short-term and long-term and how both eyes can be different.

BirdBoyRich said:

Hello,

The coatings on the objectives of my Swaro 8.5x42 EL SV dont seem as bright as they once were - as in the colour is not as intense - and I was wondering if this is due to them being a few years old and have therefore been cleaned many times, or if its just me being paranoid? Anyone else notice anything like this?

Cheers

Rich

Click to expand...

Rich,

I have porro binoculars that were made in the 1980s, and the MC, while not up to snuff compared to the latest and greatest MCs, haven't deteriorated at all. Then again, I never took them on a safari or hunting where they might have been exposed to extreme temperatures and the "elements" nor have the the lenses been cleaned many times, particularly the objectives, which don't need cleaning nearly as often as the EPs, which get gunked up from "eye juice". I let the EPs get pretty bad until I finally give them a dusting and a gentle Zeiss wipe. Salt might also have a corrosive effect if you do a lot of shore birding.

But I'm surprised to hear of coatings getting dull on SV ELs, which haven't been around that long. I'd expect this more from the original ELs, after being dragged through the mud, the blood and the beer for over a decade.

AFAIK, AR coatings can't be restored but Swaro might replace the lenses for you. They've done that with other Swaro owners on much older bins.

Brock

Thanks for the replies

The view through the bins is still very good, and the fact that the coatings are apparently fading did not bother me too much until i tried a pair of Swaro 8x30 CL Companions the other day in bright light and found them to be slightly brighter than my pair of EL's. Although I am thinking this is because my pupils were adjusted to the bright day and therefore the size of the objective wasn't coming into play and that the higher magnification in the EL's was reducing transmission. The coatings on the Companions did seem more intense also, but not a great deal I suppose, but noticeable!

I do try to keep cleaning to a minimum but sometimes they just get so mucky as I use them everyday and have used them at the coast frequently. I may consider getting the lenses changed at some point then?

Rich

BirdBoyRich,
I think that it is highly unlikely that the coatings of your Swarovision are affected by use, since the new SV's have a crystal hard protective coating on top of the optical coatings and these hard coatings are very durable.
Other manufacturers like Leica and Zeiss also use such protection coatings nowadays.
Gijs

Ok thanks Gijs, prehaps i am just being a little over concerned |^|

Rich