[RobA_Oz]

Ah, but this is abuse.

Touché!

[Docrwm]

The new DA560 is being marketed with smc and not HD.

From the Pentax Spain Facebook page.

[Docrwm]

Well, its official now - HD is replacing SMC as their top of the line coating.

HD Lens Coating
To quote the Pentax press release:
"Compared with conventional multi-layer coatings, the new multi-layer HD Coating, exclusively developed by PENTAX, offers much improved light transmittance and a much lower refractive index. Because it minimizes reflections, it delivers sharp, clear images free of flare and ghost images, even under demanding lighting conditions such as backlight. This coating assures optical performance almost equal to Aero Bright Coating, another PENTAX-exclusive lens coating process made possible by advanced nanotechnology and applied to higher-class lenses."
This implies that the coating will be reseved for higher-end lenses, as Pentax how has 3 coatings to choose from (Aero Bright, found on the DA 25mm F4 645 lens, HD, and SMC).

The graph shown above, which was published by Pentax, shows how their new HD coating performs compared to the old (conventional) multi-coating.

More Pentax news at: Pentax Announces 8 New Products and Lens Coating - Pentax Camera News & Rumors - PentaxForums.com

[Moo]

I liked the name SMC better because it was unique to Pentax. Everything has HD in its name nowadays, especially low quality products..

This.

The Pentax SMC name still has a good reputation, even amongst people loyal to other brands. Changing it (or making new version named) to "HD", which has been overused for years now, is a bad idea.

I expect you can find some cheap nasty ebay filters with "HD coating" or some such...

[glanglois]

Well, its official now - HD is replacing SMC as their top of the line coating.

HD Lens Coating
To quote the Pentax press release:
"Compared with conventional multi-layer coatings, the new multi-layer HD Coating, exclusively developed by PENTAX, offers much improved light transmittance and a much lower refractive index. Because it minimizes reflections, it delivers sharp, clear images free of flare and ghost images, even under demanding lighting conditions such as backlight. This coating assures optical performance almost equal to Aero Bright Coating, another PENTAX-exclusive lens coating process made possible by advanced nanotechnology and applied to higher-class lenses."
This implies that the coating will be reseved for higher-end lenses, as Pentax how has 3 coatings to choose from (Aero Bright, found on the DA 25mm F4 645 lens, HD, and SMC).

The graph shown above, which was published by Pentax, shows how their new HD coating performs compared to the old (conventional) multi-coating.

More Pentax news at: Pentax Announces 8 New Products and Lens Coating - Pentax Camera News & Rumors - PentaxForums.com

Not sure that's right. It appears that HD is "almost equal" to Aero Bright. But not quite, I think. And there's nothing to indicate that HD will replace SMC, is there?

My bet is that Aero Bright is the top performer, found on, perhaps, expensive 645 glass and HD is in the middle with SMC on the bottom. This implies that there will be new and more expensive lenses with the HD coatings. And that's what we need, more expensive glass. I like the way Pentax reads the market. Or something.

[Andi Lo]

To be fair, "Super Multi-Coat" does sound pretty fricking stupid.

+1, it's very Japanese 70's name. It was cool when Takumar first came out I think, but it needs to change. We could do MUCH better than HD though.

Then again I think most people dont really know what SMC stands for.

[53bicycles]

... Everything has HD in its name nowadays, especially low quality products..

I accept nothing less than Digital HD 2000 iCoating 2.0 4g (tm) on my lenses.

[KungPOW]

I accept nothing less than Digital HD 2000 iCoating 2.0 4g (tm) on my lenses.

the best post of the entire day.

[Docrwm]

Not sure that's right. It appears that HD is "almost equal" to Aero Bright. But not quite, I think. And there's nothing to indicate that HD will replace SMC, is there?

My bet is that Aero Bright is the top performer, found on, perhaps, expensive 645 glass and HD is in the middle with SMC on the bottom. This implies that there will be new and more expensive lenses with the HD coatings. And that's what we need, more expensive glass. I like the way Pentax reads the market. Or something.

Yes, that analysis makes sense. They are continuing to release SMC lenses as evidenced by their DA560 just announced.
HD Pentax-DA 560mm F5.6 ED AW DC Reviews - DA Prime Lenses - Pentax Lens Reviews & Lens Database

And the 645 lens appears to have HD
https://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/hd-pentax-d-fa-645-90mm-f2.8-macro.html

Funny thing, in reading the DA560 page here in the Lens Review section I found the following statement:
"This lens features Pentax HD coating, the next generation of multi-coating (supersedes SMC coating)."

But the photo advertizement released by Pentax clearly says SMC???

[MSM]

I accept nothing less than Digital HD 2000 iCoating 2.0 4g (tm) on my lenses.

I agree. Adding Digital and anything with a lowercase 'i' as in iCoating automatically lowers reflectivity.

I agree with others here. HD is such a bad choice. As I mentioned on the home page, it is a marketing failure to tout a new coating as 'almost' as good as something you already have in production. Don't get me wrong. I love Pentax but they are terrible at marketing. We all know that, but come on. Leave the AeroBright out of the discussion. Seriously, I thought AeroBright was in addition to and separate in function to SMC. This announcement implies a hierarchy of AB>HD>SMC

They should have just said 'Pentax is proud to announce the new SDMC®. Now digitally enhanced to provide superlative performance over the class leading SMC...' or 'They said improving coatings beyond SMC was not possible, but the engineers at Pentax proved them all wrong with the release of SDMC®. The most significant optical coating advancement in over 3 decades!' You get the idea. Hey exaggerate if needed.

[Kryscendo]

They could have called it Pentax High Definition.

PHD.

[Docrwm]

They could have called it Pentax High Definition.

PHD.

Nice thought, but the Piled Higher and Deeper jokes would abound as a result.

[Blue]

SMC+ or SMC* would have been a better name indicating the improvement and keeping with the tradition.

[Docrwm]

The marketing on HD is pretty horrible, I agree. Saying it's almost as good as Aerobright is just pathetic. Even something as pedestrian as "Introducing SMC with HD" or SMC+ as Blue suggested would have been better. And now to tell us that they have a great coating in Aerobright but they're not going to use it on anything but the * lenses....., oh and we have HD too but ...well, that lens isn't good enough for it either, your lens just gets SMC. Give me a break.

[ASa]

... SMC* would have been a better name indicating the improvement and keeping with the tradition.

This, would've been all tradition!