Very good information. Lenses by the major manufacturers will have multiple pieces of glass. There are hundreds of types of glass they may use in their lenses, and each is placed precisely in the lens barrel, and each coated for that precise element. Spaced very precisely also. I have a Contax IIIA, purchased in 1956. Original lens, f 1.5, 50mm. Elements eventually separated (some are glued to another). Now I have an f 2.0, 50mm.
Leica lenses are actually marked on the bottom end of the barrel with the exact focal length of that individual lens! Lenses such as that will have between 6 and 8 elements to make up the complete lens.

As you can see by Johnny’s post, good lenses are not simple things! Take care of your lens, protect it! You will be glad you did!

Thanks Johnny!

My advice is this: when you buy your camera, buy a good filter and put it on the lens as soon as you take the camera out of the box. Leave it there! And as mentioned before, when you see it needs to replace the filter, do it! I still own several cameras, and enjoy using them. At 82 years of youth, have also transitioned to digital. Nothing fancy or expensive. Most cameras today are capable of taking excellent pictures. Although I do look for the make of lens on the camera. It and the sensor are the most important parts.

Don’t try to follow everyone’s guidelines! You will end up frustrated. Learn to think for yourself, but pick everyone’s brains when you can. You will learn much, and discard much as well. But you will get some really great pictures as a result.

As a wrap-up, back in the early 60’s, sold a new camera (good one) to a customer. Taught him how to use it properly before he left the shop – for a round the world trip! Gave him mailers and sold him dozens of rolls of film, which he sent back to the shop in the mailers and his pictures were ready when he returned. Did not have one disappointing roll in all of them. Also kept him as a good customer!

Have fun! Enjoy using your camera!

I am talking about the front lens only.

However, no synthetic material can match natural fibres for softness and any synthetic will scratch paint, glass, etc. The microfibre variants make very, very fine scratches, that apparently many can live with. But, they do scratch, and there is no way to avoid that. It’s up to you.

Multicoatings are never part of the glass itself. Metals are incorporated into glass for various reasons, but not for the same purpose as multicoating. The multicoatings are there to correct the different focus points as light varies in wavelength.

They can only work as a thin layer (or they would not be transparent), and ideally they would be on the same plane, but that is impossible, so they are layered on top of each other. Each corrects focus point for a narrow band of light.

The more advanced microcoating the lens has, the sharper the edges of your images will be, for example, where diffraction effects show as colour fringing.

Each element in the lens should have the coating on both sides for best effect, since we’re dealing with very small wavelengths and distances here. Obviously, you can see an opportunity to save money here … the consumer only sees two surfaces, or sometimes just one.

Digital cameras also suffer from a similar effect since they colour sensors are on the same plane but the light focuses at different planes due to it’s varying wavelength. A quick perusal of a reputable camera test review site (where they actually “test” things instead of paraphrasing the press release and product literature) will reveal a point-and-shoot has bigger problems there than a DSLR lens. A huge difference between the two lenses is multicoating, which can partly correct for this problem.

Multicoating costs money and it’s what you paid for when you bought your DSLR lens. So, my advice is don’t use a multifibre cloth on it, since it will always scratch the multicoating, even if the scratches are extremely fine. Cotton fibres or camel hair is capable of leaving the surface scratch-free. Take your choice.

Yes, that’s what I meant.

-ashe
Discipline, Concentration & Wisdom

I believe he/she was referring to the the conflicting advice between both the article and one of the previous comments.

Thanks for your comments but I still do not see any conflict in the article.

I use my camera under a large variety of conditions, mostly in Arizona where it’s quite dusty, so I need to clean my lens, period. there’s no way to avoid getting dust on your lens in the desert, and the occasional person will touch the lens by accident, so i guess a lens hood is my next investment.

i use my camera to take promotional images for my business and I just want the shots to look great…