Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Chris, ? on Zeiss T* coatings...

It seems that Zeiss lenses owe a lot of their reputation to the T* coatings they use, but for the riflescopes, those "assembled in the USA" and those "manufactured in the USA" lack this coating process. For low light situations, how much does this coating really offer and why does Zeiss not apply it to their entire line? BTW, I have a Japanese Yashica compact 35mm T4 camera that has a Zeiss lens WITH the T* coating! Why can Kyocera use this coating while the less expensive Zeiss scopes cannot? Or is this T* just marketing hype? Hopefully Chris can fill me in. Thanks.

Zeiss does not use the T* coating on anything made in the U.S.A because it would then be subject to U.S. copyright and patent laws. They do not want to divulge the ingredients and the process for their competition to copy. The T* coating makes a huge difference in the optical performance. Its the first thing we look for when taking a used 10x40 binocular in on trade, if it is not marked T* we won't take it on trade.