Has anyone experienced noticeable flare with this lens? I got it in the mail today and didn't have a chance to look through it during the day. Just now, pointing it at some night scenes (lamp posts maybe 300 feet away) I noticed some ghost images and moving the lens around I difference. My Nikon 70-210mm lens acts the same way when I point it at the same scenes. Steve, in your field test you didn't mention flare..is this "normal" for the design of this lens ?noticed some flare. I thought it was because of my UV filter, so I removed it (it's a Nikon, multicoated) and there was absolutely no

thanks, Marcelo

-- Marcelo P. Lima (MPL4@cornell.edu), April 05, 1999

Answers

I am really no expert in the area of flare but I agree that faster, well coated lenses exhibit less flare than slower or stopped down lenses do. My 200(Pentax) has had some flare problems but I feel it was from my neglecting to watch to see if the sun was hitting my front element. If you keep the front element shaded, you will be happy with the contrasty images it will make. The five element design used on the 200 should in theory be less prone to flare due to it having few elements. All lenses will flare if used incorrectly. I don't consider flare to be a problem with the 200. SR

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), April 06, 1999.

Flare seems to be affected by other things in addition to coatings and focal ratios. The baffeling inside the lens barrel and the paint used inside will both have an affect on off axis light being reflected from the barrel housing onto the film plane. The SMC is one of the first and best coatings ever developed. It is not a cause of flare. Bad baffel design could be. BTW, the higher the index of the glass, the more critical it is to have a good anti-reflection coating. SR

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), May 09, 1999.

Hmm somehow my post got truncated. What I wrote is that removing the filter made no difference, and that moving the lens around I noticed some flare...

-- Marcelo P. Lima (MPL4@cornell.edu), April 05, 1999.

Marcelo

I don't have the 200mm (I'm still debating on my telephoto lens) but when I place the 105mm towards a light source I can see the same effect in the viewfinder wheras my 100mm canon ef shows no flare whatsoever. The Pentax SMC coating is renowed for its flare suppression abilities so I can postulate 2 answers.

1. A faster lens (e.g. my 100mm F2) will not show flare as readily and so a true test would be for me to stop down and view the flare effect. 2. Larger medium format lenses are intrinsically more prone to flare than smaller 35mm lenses. This will need Steve for a scientific answer.

By the way - how are you finding your lens generally.

Tapas

-- Tapas Maiti (tapasmaiti@hotmail.com), April 06, 1999.