There are FUJIFILM lenses that are credited with the “EBC”. It’s an abbreviation for “Electron Beam Coating” and it indicates that the lens has been applied with multi-layered anti-reflective coating.
It is a technology to enhance the lens performance by eliminating light reflection generated by the difference of the refractive index between the lens and air.
Its history goes back to 1972. FUJINON F3.5/55mm Macro was the first camera lens ever to have the coating. There was only a limited supply of raw materials for the coating. The record shows that 14 layers of coating have been applied to achieve the intended lens performance.
It was a breakthrough technology at the time however, and it was awarded with 25th Motion Picture and Television Engineering Award in Japan.
The research and development of the coating technology continued ever since. “EBC” then became “Super EBC” ,and it has now become “HT-EBC”, which realizes 99.8% optical transmittance. There even is “Nano GI Coating”, a new technology with a completely new way of applying coating.
The advancement in coating technology leads to more freedom in optical design. For example, higher optical transmittance or greater reduction in reflection allow lens design with greater number of elements. The multi-layer coating technology was originally developed to enhance the performance of broadcasting TV lenses and cine lenses, which often have more than 30 elements in their configuration.
The coating is also effective for wide-angle lenses, too. The reflection will be greater as the curvature on the lens element becomes greater. But with better coating, we can overcome the problem.
The advancement in lens technology is proportional to the coating technology. We will move one or two steps forward to achieve the dream lens with the next coating technology.
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