What is the difference between inked and non-inked lenses?
Inked lenses, also known as edge-blackened lenses, minimize the stray light within an optical system. In imaging and electro-optical systems, stray light can scatter off the edges of lens elements, leading to increased noise and reduced contrast reproduction. By applying a black paint or ink coating to the lens edges, the scattered light can be minimized, resulting in an improvement in the system’s signal-to-noise ratio. Non inked lenses on the other hand do not have added pigments and used in applications where scattering is non-critical where color accuracy is critical, for example.
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Thanks, per this explanation does just roughing or having a grounded edge not enough?
Roughed edges will go a long way to reduce specular reflections from the lens edges getting through an optical system and are sufficient for most applications. They might, however, leave some diffusely scattered light through the system. This diffuse scatter is reduced by the use of an absorbant ink or paint applied to the roughed edge, typically by one to two orders of magnitude. Outgassing and flaking of the ink or paint as the lens ages are two things to take into account when selecting the ink or paint.
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I believe adding the ink makes the tolerances also wider as the tolerance of ink thickness adds to the tolerance pile.
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