Unlike color PVD coatings, DLC coatings come in shades rather than colors, ranging from grays to gorgeous dark graphite. Customers deposit dark black finishes via a PVD rather than a DLC coating process, but consumers love the look of black DLC coating. Darker DLC coatings are as durable as metallic PVD coatings and retain a low coefficient of friction.

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Once we set a recipe, color variations are so slight that the naked eye can’t distinguish within-run and run-to-run variations.

DLC coating is excellent at coating exterior product surfaces, and some internal dimensions can be coated. But DLC has limitations and can’t be used to coat deep recesses like the inside of tubes.

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Typical DLC coating temperatures range from 100-250 C. Our DLC coating machines run in the 150-200 C range. Above those temperatures, the DLC coating may not form properly. The DLC coating thickness required to achieve opaque finishes makes maintaining part temperatures <125C challenging.

A Variable ND filter is so useful because it is variable. After placing the filter on the lens, simply rotate it to dial in the correct exposure.

PVD coating comes in a wide range of natural metallic and other colors. DLC coating is limited to grays and blacks, providing the distinct DLC coating look consumers love. DLC coating must also be deposited at a somewhat higher thickness as it is a semi-transparent coating at thinner deposition levels.

Fashion photography with Dixie Dixon, Visual Storytelling with Joe McNally, Wedding photography with Jerry Ghionis and Sports photography with Rod Mar

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Photographers love the shallow focus look you can get when you shoot with a fast lens, wide open but did you also know that you can get that same look and feel when shooting movies with a DSLR? It really gives them that film-like feel.

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Choose the right-sized, right-priced system that deposits functional and durable/decorative coatings to meet your needs.

DLC coating cost varies greatly depending on whether you use a coating service or bring a DLC coating machine in-house. DLC coating costs approximately $20 per part when using a coating service. This option makes sense if you DLC coat a low volume of parts. However, running your DLC coating machine in-house brings per-part coating costs down, sometimes to less than $1 per part.

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Shooting in bright daylight, oftentimes it can be nearly impossible to shoot wide open without blowing out your exposure. It’s easy to do so though, when you have a Variable Neutral Density or Variable ND filter.

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Our systems run the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD) process that creates DLC coatings via a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process. Our hybrid VT-1500i™ system adds sputtering capability for metal-doped DLC coatings. For example, adding tungsten creates the VaporTech® W-DLC finish.

Choose the right-sized, right-priced system that deposits functional and durable/decorative coatings to meet your needs.

VaporTech® coatings enhance your product’s look, functionality, and durability with a rainbow of PVD colors and performance coatings for functional applications.

Diamond-like carbon coating process

DLC is a semi-transparent coating. Therefore, DLC coating thickness determines the color of the DLC coating. For our standard applications, PVD coatings are thinner than 1 micron. DLC coating thickness is typically ≥1 micron, the point where the coating becomes opaque.

You can also use it as a substitute for something pros call “riding iris,” which means adjusting the exposure while you shoot as your scene changes in brightness. To do this, you rotate the filter and smoothly adjust the exposure as the lighting changes, like when panning from a darker area to a brighter one, all the time keeping the same f/stop and the same depth of field.

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DLC means diamond-like carbon coatings. Decorative DLC coating means applying these durable, aesthetically pleasing coatings for durable-decorative use rather than their more common use for performance coatings.

A Variable ND filter will let you cut the amount of light in your scene by two to eight f/stops. It is essentially a fourth way to control the exposure, working along with shutter speed, aperture and ISO sensitivity.

A Variable ND filter is an optically transparent filter that allows you to adjust its opacity and knock down the brightness of the light between two to eight stops, without effecting color or anything else.

VaporTech® coatings enhance your product’s look, functionality, and durability with a rainbow of PVD colors and performance coatings for functional applications.

There’s a great deal of variation among brands, but all VaporTech® DLC coating machines give you PVD and DLC coating options at the click of the (recipe) button.

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Fashion photography with Dixie Dixon, Visual Storytelling with Joe McNally, Wedding photography with Jerry Ghionis and Sports photography with Rod Mar

DLC can coat most conductive metals. Substrate hardness and surface finish influence the durability of the coating. For hardness, a good analogy is ice on water: the chance of breakthrough decreases as the ice (i.e., hard coating) thickens over the softer water (i.e., substrate). Alternatively, as the substrate hardens, so does the “composite hardness” of the substrate and coating. This result applies to all thin films, including DLC coating and conventional PVD finishes. The base material strongly influences durability and varies with the end-use.

Although performance DLC coating applications such as engine parts or cutting tools are better-known, decorative DLC coatings are now popular with consumers in products ranging from watches to vehicle trim.