Hydrophobic lens coatings? How effective are yours? (1 Viewer)

[Tvc15_2000]

When birding in the rain I focus more on preventing getting the lenses wet in the first place. For instance keeping the rain guards on till the bins are horizontal to reduce raindrops on the glass.
Pre hydrophobic birding in the rain was truly stinko and required a wipe with something dry (which is often hard to find when you are standing in the rain!
With the coatings a wrist snap does remove most of the water on the glass but I find what is left is still annoying but it is an improvement over non coated surfaces (in my opinion).
I will have to pay more attention next time I am out so I can state this more clearly.
How are the coatings working for you.

 

[Alexis Powell]

When birding in the rain I focus more on preventing getting the lenses wet in the first place. For instance keeping the rain guards on till the bins are horizontal to reduce raindrops on the glass.
Pre hydrophobic birding in the rain was truly stinko and required a wipe with something dry (which is often hard to find when you are standing in the rain!
With the coatings a wrist snap does remove most of the water on the glass but I find what is left is still annoying but it is an improvement over non coated surfaces (in my opinion).
I will have to pay more attention next time I am out so I can state this more clearly.
How are the coatings working for you.

In my experience, they are as you describe--they don't work as perfectly as a lotus leaf, but they keep the bins usable, which is a big improvement. I've found that heavy rain can be easier to deal with than fog/mist because it forms big drops that can be flicked off easily.

--AP

 

[Tvc15_2000]

In my experience, they are as you describe--they don't work as perfectly as a lotus leaf, but they keep the bins usable, which is a big improvement. I've found that heavy rain can be easier to deal with than fog/mist because it forms big drops that can be flicked off easily.

--AP

I was unaware of the Lotus leaf effect. Way cool.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_effect

I usually only have a fig leaf with me! ha ha ha!

Thanks for the feedback
T

 

[WilsonsWarbler]

The coatings on the Minox APO HG are pretty effective and I can also just blow any remaining water off of them. Quite different than the normal HG I have.

 

[ZEN-RAY]

There is a big difference between glasses with and without hydrophobic coatings. The short video below will give you an idea how well the hydrophobic coating should perform. It was taken on the ZEN ED2 20-60x82 spotting scope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n5yNK0ibMk