Thought I'd check out this thread to try and get an idea what are the likely improvements of the HD coating on the FA31. Lots to read, but it didn't exactly answer my question. So:
This morning I tried the SMC FA31 and the HD FA 24-70 and HD FA 15-30 f2.8 into the sun. Yes, I appreciate they are very different internal designs... The surprising thing to me was just how flare resistant the zooms were. I focussed on a tree with the sun centered above and took several shots, inclining the angle until the sun was just out of the frame. I set them all to be 30/31mm.
The 31mm flare badly and the contrast was poor. No real surprises. I looked at the DA HD v SMC review on this site and the conclusion was that the HD coatings were better, but not as much better as I saw today in my comparison.
And so to my question: if the HD coating does improve things in a similar way to the DA coating changes, is it likely the significant flare differences I experienced today are likely to be the internal design along with the coating? Thus, the HD will be better, but not as good as modern designs?
Last edited by BarryE; 04-11-2021 at 09:21 AM.