Lens recoating Australia

[JoeBlow (Joe)]

I have a collection of vintage eyepieces, particularly Plossls. I was wondering if in Australia we have lens recoating services to restore a few of these old eyepieces, and at a reasonable price?

[By.Jove (Jove)]

To fix a one-off, no, Live with what you have or find another in better condition. For two reasons:

1. The existing coating has to be ground off both sides of the lens, then the lens has to be repolished before re-coating - and thats assuming the end result is still optically OK, which it may well not be.

2. While there is a company that does optical coatings for military projects these are (1) new uncoated glass and (b) for a one-off they can afford the price - which is well outside the realm of amateur pockets.

What makes coatings viable financially for consumer optics (cameras, eyepieces and telescopes) is that they're done in large batches. The economy of scale applies. For a one off you're going to pay the whole cost for just 1 surface. Twice.

And remember to keep DEET insect repellant well away from all optical coatings.

[JoeBlow (Joe)]

Thanks for the reply Jove. I feared that might be the case. But it sounds even far more expensive than what I suspected. It's a shame because there are some very sought after vintage eyepieces that otherwise would be nice to fully restore.