Lens Coatings??

I watched a documentary tonight on the manufacture of lenses. Specifically the Carl Zeiss plant. Some fascinating stuff i thought.

The most interesting part was the way they applied the coatings to the lenses. It consisted of three elements in the form of a paste, Aluminium, Magnesium and a third element they didn't mention. Secret ingredient i assume

The paste was then ground into the glass in precise amounts and for different time lengths. Quite a time consuming process.
This made the lenses less reflective to light thus eliminating flare.
I figured the coating would be extremely tough as it is impregnated into the glass

Only one guy works the coatings part of the process, but he can do several dozen at a time

I would say Pentax would have a similar process and adding a removing different elements and the length of time each lens is processed dictates whether its an SMC or not. :

A lot of you egg heads may already know all this but i had no idea how it was done and found it very interesting

I can see now why lenses are so expensive.

I have seen that they allso use vacuum coating in which the coating is vaporised and forms a thin layer on the glass.
There are different techniques to apply coatings. The one you mention is "new" to me, I haven't seen them doing it that way.

Clarky are you sure they were lenses for an SLR not for a TV/film camera? I know that there is a lot more handwork involved in producing those lenses, with suitable horrendous price tags to match.

that's the way I know of it being done too, the maths of optical coatings is really quite amazing. The first time it was explained to me I looked at it and went "yes, but surely that doesn't actually WORK in the real world?"