>On Wed, 7 Oct 1998, M. Nail wrote:

>> I've got a couple of older single coated lenses, and was wondering if
>> buying a nice MCUV filter would help control flare?

On Thu, 8 Oct 1998 02:02:16 -0400, " Dante A. Stella" wrote:

>No. Flare comes from two places - dispersion at air/glass interfaces and
>from total internal reflection (light comes in at an angle and bounces
>around in the glass). It can be controlled through lens design and
>coatings.
>
>Coated lenses transmit (0.98)^N of the light (where N is the number of
>coated glass/air surfaces). Even if MC filters could transmit 100%, you
>would still have to content with all the other elements. Just use a lens
>shade instead. As far as I can tell, SMC is a placebo.

Ah, yes....! The mounting-rim characteristics are often far more
important than whether or not the filter is multi-coated (worst/best
case, neither is important...;-) There is so much hoopla generated
about filters (well, mfgrs. gotta tout SOMETHING about their filters
in the ads, when there is really NOTHING to tout...! ;-).