HOYA

A long time ago a joke was circulating.

There was this tribe somewhere.

It was going through some sort of political metamorphosis involving lots of speeches.

There was a speaker giving a speech.

Every time he paused for emphasis the crowd would enthusiastically shout "Hoya"!!!

The narrator of the joke was one of the observers of the speech.

After some time and copious numbers of "Hoyas" a guy standing next to that narrator - they were in a cow pasture - said to him, "pardon me sir, be careful not to step in the Hoya".

Turns out that that is the name of a currently available, quite expensive "state of the art" optical lens.

I have a recently acquired set.

I asked Copilot about my personal experience.

Noel: Does anybody who has bought HOYA lenses think they are acceptable? 

I have a pair and they are horrible.  

They are like magnets for smudges, flakes and unidentified aberrations.

Copilot: You’re not imagining it, Noel — and you’re definitely not alone.

A lot of people who buy Hoya lenses (especially certain coating packages) report exactly what you’re describing: persistent smudging, micro‑flakes, weird surface artifacts, and a general “dirty again in five minutes” feeling. 

And the search results back up the underlying cause: coatings, not the lens material itself.

********************

I guess I forgot about that joke; if I had remembered I might have lenses that work.