References: Further reading: Special thanks to Synopsys for allowing use of my student license of Code V for the creation of this series. Without it, these efforts would simply be impossible. Feature Image by Bill Ebbesen – Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Author: Brandon Dube
Brandon Dube for opticallimits.com under exclusive license After the theory it’s now time for a discussion of a lens. Figure 10 is an example of a real lens, and a 50mm f/1.4 design at that. Its patent may be found on page 335 of Modern Lens Design by Smith. Figure 10 – 50mm f/1.4 RIM Plot for Full-Frame Double Gauss Lens The plot looks messy but honestly this is not too unusual for a fast 50mm. I will break the plot down into its constituents for all field positions: On-Axis (0.000°) 7/10 field (16.55°) Full field (23.00°) At full field, the plot’s…
Brandon Dube for opticallimits.com under exclusive license Camera lenses are wonderfully imperfect devices. Photographers will get into great debates about lens character, lens rendering and a whole host of other points of discussion. All of these things stem from imperfections (aberrations) within the optical system. If a lens is “perfectly” corrected for all aberrations and has even transmission across the entire spectrum of interest, it is completely “transparent” and will impart no character to the image. The only limitation in a “perfectly” corrected system is how fast it is – the maximum possible resolution of a lens is determined by its…
Brandon Dube for opticallimits.com under exclusive license Why’d they do that? Introduction to Lens Design for Photographers To most photographers camera lenses are black boxes. You mount one to your camera, focus, maybe set the aperture, and take pictures. Some are brighter than others, some are sharper than others, some have more chromatic aberrations (and so on), but the internals remain a mystery. This article is the first in a series the goal of which is to provide a little background and context for lens design without getting too heavy into the mathematics involved. Back to the beginning Before we…