Binoculars consist of numerous air to glass surfaces with each individual surface contributing to the loss of light. Coated lense binoculars help prevent the loss of light with one or more of the surfaces being coated with one or more layers of anti-reflective coating. Never buy binoculars with uncoated lenses, the lack of coating means that around 50% of light could be lost making non coated lense binoculars half as bright as their coated counterparts.

Coated lense binoculars used to come with a hefty price tag but now most binoculars come with coated lenses in one form or another and top quality fully multi-coated lense binoculars are often within the price range of many users.

The greater the number of coatings and the more surfaces that are coated the less light is lost so if you are looking for the best binoculars you want fully multi-coated lenses.

There are basically four grades of coated lense binoculars although some manufacturers have developed their own, exclusive, high quality coatings which offer greater durability and further improved light transmission with other added advantages:

• Coated lense binoculars means that one or more surfaces are coated with one layer of anti-reflective coating. If only one or a limited number of air to glass surfaces are coated such binoculars will provide you little more light transmission than un-coated lense binoculars.

• Fully coated lense binoculars means that air to glass surfaces are coated with one layer of anti-reflective coating.

• Multi coated lense binoculars means that one or more air to glass surfaces are coated with multiple layers of anti-reflective coating. Like coated lense binoculars you have to be careful here as just one surface could be coated!

• Fully multi coated lense binoculars are the best that you can buy. All air to glass surfaces are coated in multiple layers of anti reflective coating.

Fully coated lense binoculars can increase light transmission from 50% to around 80 - 85% which is now the norm for low cost binoculars. If you want something a bit more special that will increase light transmission to 95% or above then you want to go for fully multi coated lense binoculars and, for extra durability and advance quality viewing, take a look at the exclusive coatings offered by some of the top manufacturers. Bushnell Elite binoculars come with Bushnell's exclusive XTR technology (60 layers of coatings on each prism) which delivers 99.73% light transmission per lense.

The difference between fully coated lense binoculars and fully multi coated might not sound that great but once you have owned binoculars with the best quality optics and coatings you'll never look back. The light transmission, resolution and clarity of top quality binoculars is amazing and the enhanced viewing generally makes the higher price tag well worth it.

A few fully multi coated lense binoculars are Bushnell Elite, Bushnell Legend Binoculars, Bushnell Natureview, Pentax DCF SP / XP and HR II, Pentax PCF Binoculars, Nikon HG L DCF Binoculars and Olympus EXPS I Series Binoculars.



Thanks to Terry Ross for contributing this article to our Binoculars blog:

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