Why Old Lens Camera Lenses Have A Weird Color : From Amber To Green

The performance of a lens has an intense effect on the outcome of photography. The quality of the lens directly influences the final image. Many advancements have come in optics nowadays. These advancements have reduced many common defects in lens systems, but they have not been completely eliminated. In this article we will discuss why old lens camera lenses have a weird color?

Modern lenses are perfectly sharp and crisp. Perfection is overrated and can be rather boring. Old camera lenses have developed a prominent yellow tint over time. This characteristic is commonly observed in lenses like the legendary Takumar series from Asahi Pentax. The yellowing effect is not merely cosmetic. Lens descriptions sometimes refer to the ability to render color.

Table of Contents

Structure Of Lens

The glass inside your lens is not flat, like a window. It is curved like a lentil. Some of the glass is convex and some is concave. Convex and concave features of the lens allow the lens to focus on things that are very far away, or magnify things that are very small.

If you think of a flashlight, that you can twist to either focus the beam of light down to a very narrow point or widen it for a diffused light covering a larger area, the principle is very similar.

Why Old Lens Camera Lenses Have A Weird Color?: Reasons

There are many reasons due to which old lenses have weird colors. Some of the main reasons are as follows.

Refraction

If your lens had only one piece of curved glass in it, then the resulting image would suffer from distortion. For example, the yellow flower in the photo below is distorted by the roundness of the water droplet. If you want to overcome distortion, lenses are constructed with multiple pieces of curved glass. Some lenses are convex, some are concave, these are used for compensating the distortion caused by the others.

This is what they mean when the lens manufacturers refer to “elements” (pieces of curved glass) and “groups” (when more than one element is grouped together). All of them are working together to focus the image onto your sensor with as little distortion as possible.

Flare

Now that light is passing through several layers of glass, bending and diffracting every time.As a result of this distortion occurred. Zoom lenses need more elements than prime lenses. Zoom lenses can lead to poorer color rendition. It can also lead to poorer sharpness, which is why prime lenses are often considered superior. More layers of glass also mean more places for light to bounce around, creating flare, which can negatively impact both color and contrast.

Color saturation is closely linked with contrast. Flare is an especially common problem in wide angle lenses. High-quality lenses have coatings that help reduce flare, and using your lens hood will also help. Every now and then, some flare is going to sneak in, especially when shooting into the sun. Although it can be used to effect at times, it does create a hazy effect, robbing the photo of saturation.

Chromatic Aberration

Low-quality lenses often suffer from chromatic aberration or fringing. Chromatic Aberration occurs when the lens is unable to focus all of the different wavelengths of color onto the same focal plane. The result is a glowing halo, usually green or purple, and seen especially around areas of high contrast.

If all colors are not focused on the same plane, then rendering colors problems arise. The process of removing the chromatic aberration can often result in an overall desaturation of those colors in the entire image. Kit lenses are frequent offenders.

Chromatic aberration in your cameras is most often seen as a purple or green halo around edges of high contrast. This photo was taken using a standard Nikon 18-55mm kit lens.

Noise

Noise can wreak havoc on color and saturation. The lens itself does not affect noise. Higher ISO’s become necessary when using lenses with smaller maximum apertures. When used in low light situations, a more affordable, higher f/stop number lens can impact the color in that way.

Color Casts

Different lenses undeniably display different color casts.Some color casts may be more appealing than others. In my own testing, I found my Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 to be a little bit warmer than some of the other lenses in the comparison. Color casts were a bigger issue in the film days than they are in the digital age, but they are still a problem in filmmaking. When filming video for movies or television, multiple cameras are used concurrently.

The footage from those different angles and focal lengths are all edited together into the final scene. If colors were inconsistent when flipping between those views, it would be a distraction. High-end cinematography lenses come in color matched sets and are accordingly priced in the tens and hundreds of thousands.

Vintage Lens Coating/Original Glass Color

One key reason for the yellow tint in old lenses like the Takumar series is related to the materials and coatings applied during their manufacturing. Takumar lenses, produced in the 1960s and 1970s, were renowned for their optical quality, and part of this quality came from specialized coatings that improved light transmission and reduced reflections.

These coatings, often made from compounds that could degrade over time, are known to develop a yellowish hue as they age. This wasn’t initially a defect but a feature to reduce glare and enhance contrast. After continuous exposure to air and light, these coatings became more susceptible to discoloration.

Many lenses in this era, including certain Takumar models, used glass that contained rare-earth elements like thorium. These elements were chosen because they offered superior optical clarity and reduced chromatic aberrations. They also had a faint natural yellow tint. This was an inherent part of the lens design and was seen as beneficial to image quality at the time, as it contributed to warmer tones and softer contrasts in the final images.

Camera Lens Coating/Aging Glass

Another significant factor in the yellowing of vintage lenses like the Takumar is the natural aging of the materials used, particularly when thorium was involved. Thorium-infused glass has a slight radioactivity, which over time leads to a change in the molecular structure of the glass, resulting in the pronounced yellowing.

This radioactive decay is slow and doesn’t pose harm to users but does affect the visual characteristics of the glass. The longer these lenses are exposed to light, the more noticeable the yellowing becomes.

Takumar lenses, particularly the 50mm f/1.4, are well-known examples of this phenomenon. Many photographers noticed that their Takumar lenses developed a deeper yellow tint. While this yellowing alters the way the lens renders colors—often giving images a warm, vintage look—many photographers embrace it for the unique aesthetic it creates.

Some opt to reverse the yellowing by exposing the lens to ultraviolet light, which can help reduce or eliminate the discoloration caused by thorium decay. However, for many vintage camera enthusiasts, the yellow tint of lenses like the Takumar is part of their charm, adding character to both the equipment and the images they produce.

Frequently Asked Questions

1: Why Didn’t Old Cameras Have Color?

Color photographs were easy to make in the 1950’s. Cameras were expensive at that time. Color film was not available for some good cameras. We have to buy flashbulbs from old cameras.

2.Why Do Cameras Distort Color?

A camera sensor’s RGB filters generally have less-overlap than the colour-sensors in the eye, which can result in the camera seeing the colours “pulled” more-towards the red/green/blue primary than the original colour. (This is very apparent if you ever try to take a photograph of the spectrum from a prism.)

Conclusion

Although UV light can help reduce the yellowing of lens tint, be aware that most vintage lenses are designed for film cameras. Modern CMOS sensors, film are easily affected by UV light, and this effect is usually irreversible. Therefore, if you want to use a film camera or want to protect the surface coating of your camera lens, you can purchase Protection & UV Control Filters for your lens to reduce the impact of UV light on film and lens.