I’ve long loathed the situation where top quality lenses are available from only 1 vendor who can’t ship outside of their continent for reasonable cost.
Recently I found another option that has potential to move the top higher and enable custom sizes while being cheaper, at least outside of CONUS and possibly everywhere.
Schott is a major glass maker and they have a line of AR coated display glass, Conturan.
This glass:
- is manufactured in large sheets, 1.8x1.2m
- is available in a range of thicknesses from 1.6 mm up
- has 99% transmission
- is colour-neutral, does not spoil tint
- can optionally have oleophobic coating
- can be cut by ordinary glass shops
- can be hardened (few shops can harden thin glass but with persistence it’s possible to find one)
I learned about it from PolarLi who is very happy about his lens.
I tried to organise a GB…but communication with the Polish Shott distributor doesn’t go smooth and I lost hope it will succeed. But PolarLi managed to make a $60 order so in other places that may be easier.