Since its establishment in 1941 as Japan's first specialty manufacturer of optical glass, Hoya has diversified into new business areas that exploit the potential of advanced optics technologies. The Company has continued to grow as a global enterprise through the expansion of its diverse business, which encompass electro-optics, photonics, vision care, health care and crystal products.

The wide aperture lenses of today are very expensive and all photographers want to get the most speed, optical performance, and dollar performance from their investment.

Say a customer pays $800.00 for a 28-70mm f/2.8 lens. Then, to protect this investment the customer buys a cheap bare glass filter, which has a light reflection rate of 9%. This filter is literally slowing the lens down by 9%, or effectively turning a $800 f/2.8 lens into the equivalent of a slower f/3.0 lens worth $455. The value of the lens drops 9% when you put the cheap filter on it. The cost savings of the less expensive filter do not off set the loss of lens speed.

Also, this does not address the loss of sharpness or focus shift, which can have a noticeable detrimental impact on picture quality. For these reasons, Hoya multi-coated filters present the best value on the market today.