Custom Multi-Coating?

[tonal1]

Does anyone have a bead on any companies that still offer optical multi-coating to order? I just found out from Mr. Vartanian at ARAX that the Arsenal factory in Kiev disposed of their multi-coating equipment.

Edmund Optical has a fairly prohibitive minimum batch size. I am 100% certain that someone, somewhere offers a custom beam coating service, but I'm out of luck so far.

Any ideas? Zeiss Dresden? China?

 

[kzphoto]

John van Stelten of Focal Point can recoat lenses, but it ain't cheap. I had a Rolleiflex 3.5F re-polished and recoated. Cost about $350.

 

[tlitody]

http://www.kingsviewoptical.com/

 

[tonal1]

John van Stelten of Focal Point can recoat lenses, but it ain't cheap. I had a Rolleiflex 3.5F re-polished and recoated. Cost about $350.

Focal Point is great, but they replace the coating with the factory-style coating, not the more modern multi-spectrum coating I'm after. They are legendary for great work though.

 

[tonal1]

http://www.kingsviewoptical.com/

Thanks for the recommendation. Have you had good experience with Kingsview?

 

[tlitody]

Thanks for the recommendation. Have you had good experience with Kingsview?

I haven't used them(yet) but in the UK a company called Balham Optical used to be the people that everyone sent their lenses to. Now that Balham have closed we find out that Balham used to send lenses to Kingsview for serious work such as recoating. I spoke with a company called Camserve who have taken on some of Balhams old clients and they told me they also send lenses to kingsview for coating and that if I wanted coating work done and not just repair or cleaning, I should send direct to kingsview.
So no I can't give a personal recommendation but they are the only company I know of with specialist equipment who will do it.

 

[tonal1]

Oh hey, that's great info. Thanks tlitody.

 

[tonal1]

I got a very useful reply from Kingsview:

"I would recommend , only recoating the surfaces that need coating, To Recoat ,the surface must be polished, To get the ultimate from the modern coating designs the glass index is needed, when this is not known we use our standard multi layer coating for crown glass this will offer a reasonable performance on high index, but not necessarily better than a single layer MGF2 if the index is High,
When any surface is repolished and coated there is a element of risk.
So you see unless you know the lens materials exact design radius [not necessarily what your actual lens is] center thickness etc etc you may pay a lot of money and actually finish up with elements missing or inferior to what you started with, So only take that risk on elements that are definitely defect.
A budgetary price is 50 pounds per surface, to be confirmed on inspection."

 

[tlitody]

Well at least they are very upfront about it and not expensive unless you have many surfaces to coat.

 

[tonal1]

Well at least they are very upfront about it and not expensive unless you have many surfaces to coat.

Agreed. They sound like a great establishment.

 

[Dante_Stella]

John van Stelten of Focal Point can recoat lenses, but it ain't cheap. I had a Rolleiflex 3.5F re-polished and recoated. Cost about $350.

I am thinking about this on a 2.8f whose coating has actually just come off - but my only concern is a blue taking and gold viewing coating - is this noticeable in real life?

Dante

 

[Greg_E]

Thanks for the link, might have to send a lens to them.

Any other places, especially in the USA?