Tri Elmar MATE; something is happened...

[adan]

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At a low enough, glancing angle, even matte black paint and ridges/corrugations can still reflect a lot of light, although obvious somewhat less than glossy black or bare metal. (You'd have to ask a physicist exactly why - mention "total external reflection.")

 

Below is the view through the back of the 90mm Tele-Elmarit v.2, well-known for producing veiling flare patches (like the MATE samples above) from strong light sources just outside the picture area.

 

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The 135mm APO-Telyt, which also has quite a long tube behind the rear element, behaves similarly in a similar situation. https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/245402-135mm-apo-telyt-flare/

 

My 90TE's "matte black, corrugated" reflection is so complete that it almost becomes a mirror, separately imaging the three individual lightbulbs in that experiment. At a shallow enough angle.

 

And, of course, the ~25mm of matte black, corrugated "box" of the camera itself, between the lens mount and the shutter, can do the same. Just depends on how long the total distance is between the point the light exits the glass and the sensor/film. That determines how shallow the angle is.

 

You can check this looking through your own MATE from the back, pointing it so that a bright light source (preferably not the sun!) is just outside the picture area.

 

The only real fix for a lens that does this is what Hollywood does - use a lens hood that crops the incoming light to a rectangle exactly matched to the field of view of the lens (no spill outside the image area). For a zoom lens, that means a variable bellows lens shade. https://nofilmschool.com/2011/11/why-do-you-need-a-matte-box

 

Or install a serious rectangular baffle (not just corrugations) inside the lens or camera itself - Rollei used three "walls" inside their bodies: http://www.janboettcher.de/MuseumR2eng.html

[a.noctilux]

Many years of explanation and "how".

Thanks Adan.

Flare can be avoidable,

...take time (as with everything) to learn/know how to avoid can be tricky.

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