While very sharp, early versions of the lens suffered from flare due to its many air-to-glass surfaces. Before the introduction of lens coating technology, the four-element Tessar, with slightly inferior image quality, was preferred due to its better contrast.
Early versions of the lens suffered from flare due to its many air-to-glass surfaces. The four-element Tessar, with slightly inferior image quality, was preferred before lens coating technology was available because it provided better contrast.