24L mk II and flare with long exposures

I have a question, how is flare control with this lens? I shot some night photos tonight in dc of some of the buildings in the nation mall and noticed on a couple of the buildings I was getting small streaks of rainbow colored flare in multiple areas. Seems to be in the area of 1 sec and longer, aperatures of about 7.1 to 8 and combinations of the two. There were also street lights present in the photos, not sure if that was the cause. Since I am really starting to learn how to do night photography, I was't sure if it was a specific lens issue or techinque. I can't post any examples until get home this weekend, but hopefully I have described it pretty cleary. Any thoughts??

So far I have no problem on my 24L MKII. The MKII version control flare better than the MKI. Did you shoot in to direct sunlight?

It was night, no sun. There was street lights in the photo, not sure if that could be the culprit.

The length of the exposure has nothing to do with why you see more lens flare at night than during the day. It is purely because the contrast between lights and the dark spaces in between them is typically much greater at night than during the day. You'd get those same flares during the day if the lights were on, but you may not notice them unless they are against a dark background.

My checklist for flare is:

1) Remove all filters. #1 most common cause of flare for me.
2) Change the angle slightly and see if you can't get the flare to go away or move to somewhere more convenient in the frame. You should be able to see flare in the viewfinder or LiveView - you just have to remember to look for it.
3) It could be the lens, but that lens has Canon's best coatings, and low-light photography is its main purpose. Here are two photos with that lens (one is basically facing the opposite direction of the other) - lights everywhere - but, importantly, neither is pointed at a streetlight, which is sure to bring out the flare in any lens. BTW, if I recall correctly, the lens had a cheap UV filter on it.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …ornsarebitter/5​248232604/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …ornsarebitter/5​247495773/

I think 24L is really resistant to flare ....

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IMAGE LINK: http://photos.corbi.eu …40/1021340121_t​kqAU-O.jpg

IMAGE LINK: http://photos.corbi.eu …519/606315635_G​eeUr-O.jpg

IMAGE LINK: http://photos.corbi.eu …510/606315579_n​8KER-O.jpg

I wasn't using a filter so it must have just been an extreme angle with the street lights. I will have to play with it some more.

Try using a slim UV filter.

For night shots absolutely no filter !!!! .. you will surely get internal flare with a lot of incident light points ...

newworld666 wrote in post #11866634
For night shots absolutely no filter !!!! .. you will surely get internal flare with a lot of incident light points ...

Maybe flare was the wrong wording, incident light points seems more accurate with my example.

If you want to avoid any flare, use the lens hood but, this lens is really good at controlling it imo due to the coating.