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19 Please remember this: if you decide to use an uncoated lens you must protect it from water splash, fingerprinting and the like. The use of flats in front of the lens is highly recommended. It is also important to realize what you are doing with the introduction of the uncoated look. The removal of the antireflective coating will reduce contrasts and induce flare, which is what most cinematographers are looking for when using such a lens. One of the problems may be that while we are using an uncoated lens, we are still using a very modern optic. Coatings do make a big difference in the modern lens but they are no means every- thing that contributes to the total look of the lens. In the beginning of the non-coating era many rental houses started by removing the coating from their Zeiss Superspeeds, a lens many had at that time which had been superseded at that time by the more modern Ultraprimes. The Superspeed even when uncoated still belongs to the modern lens family. While removing the coating will make the lens flair, it won't alter the other characteristics of the lens. The lens will remain very sharp. Later, some rental companies got around to decoating sets of Super Baltars and Cooke Speed Panchro's. These, while not as sharp as the Superspeeds, yield a very different look on the screen. They yield a softer, more ethereal look. Not long ago, Ultraflat decided to try an experiment. Working with Visual Products we removed the front coating from a Schneider Xenon. We thought that removing the coating from a Schneider Might yield an interesting look. The image was soft and ethereal. The Flare went in one direction only, top to bottom. But the flare alone wasn't the thing that excited our attention: The Image had a soft Ethereal look: the image looked like it might have been shot in the nineteen hundreds. If you are thinking of having the coatings removed from your lenses, proceed very carefully. If your coatings are removed by a polishing machine, run by an expert you can rest assured that the lenses can be recoated at a latter time returning them to their former Condition. On the other hand, incorrect polishing can actually alter the radius of the lens element itself, altering the lens forever. This is obviously not desirable! As Cinematographers continue their exploration for different tools, more and more lens types will be uncoated. Every one of these lenses will become a different tool to be used by he cinematographer to compliment their unique vision. The author, Bob Caspari works at Ultraflat, an optical polishing and grinding company that services the motion picture industry. He can be reached at Ultraflat at (818) 884-0184 or by email at ser- vice@ultraflat.com