Well Scott, help doesn't come any better than that.
Allen
----Original Message Follows----
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [OM] Re: Which lens would you choose
Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2007 01:27:29 -0800
Scott Peden wrote:
> I have RMC on a Tokina 28 mm 1:2.8
>
> I too would be interested to know if that is a standard designation that
is
> a step up from a MC.
>
No. When multi-coating started, the major camera manufacturers mostly
just so labeled their lenses, first often spelled out, then often
becoming simply MC.
Pentax and some of the independent lens makers used their onw special
designations, essentially, one assumes, as marketing . So the Pentax
50/1.4, for example, first became the SUPER-MULTI-COATED TAKUMAR, THEN
THE SMC TAKUMAR. Oly went the low key, way, adding simply MC and later,
when it could be assumed all lenses were multi-coated, dropped even that
designation.
Tokina's version of the MC label was RMC and a little red logo sort of
like a top and bottom tilde with two vertical lines connecting them.
This came before the AT-X (Advanced Technology) line of lenses. When
AT-X came along, there was nothing in the manuals, at least the ones I
have, about RMC, but the label and logo remained on the front ring of
the lenses.
The other lovely confusing thing is new optical glasses. Some called
them ED, Extra low Dsispersion, SD, Super low Dispersion, etc., and
sometimes indicated their presence with thin color bands on the lenses.
So most of the AT-X Tokinas have a thin red line near the front, but
wait a minute, at least two SZ-X series Tokinas are RMC with logo on the
front ring and have the red ring and SD glass. And there are AT-Xs with
yellow rings, instead of red, and ... aaaahh.
It's essentially impossible to tell what's in many MF lenses unless you
have the manual or can read tea leaves. But generally, any marking
including "MC" means multi-coated and any littel colored ring near the
front means some sort of then new glass formula in most often one element.
In the end, it matters little, all but the very earliest zooms ar MC,
for the simple reason that MC is required for the many element designs
to avoid unacceptable light loss. And you can pretty much rely on the
Tamron SP (Super Performance), Tokina AT-X and Sigma APO as being their
best lenses. There are others in their lines that are good, but those
lines aren't uniformly so.
Unfortunately, even that isn't always a clear indication of the best
lenses in any line. Gary's tests and the Cult classics site agree that
the pre AT-X Tokina RMC 28-85 zoom is slightly superior in performance
to the AT-X that came next, but the AT-X is smaller, .lighter and
focuses closer. So which is the better lens? Depends on what is most
important to the user.
The most useful single source of info about all this is the Cult
Classics site <http://medfmt.8k.com/third/index.html>. Gary's lens tests
are also often useful, as he tested many third party MF lenses for OM
mount <http://members.aol.com/olympusom/lenstests/default.htm>.
Moose
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