Lens Construction

[RalphLambrecht]

We are off topic and you did not chase links on post #10

But
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BARS_apparatus

Yes synthetic girls best friends

interesting if one speaks Japanese but I think the OP's question was abot lens design not manufacturing if I understood it correctly?

 

[Xmas]

interesting if one speaks Japanese but I think the OP's question was abot lens design not manufacturing if I understood it correctly?

See post #20 by OP
Web error 1 not reading previous page text

 

[flavio81]

Milestones in lens designs, in my view, in chronological order:

- Lens coatings (single coating), circa 1920s or 1930s; universally applied from the early 1950s onwards.

- High refraction index glasses (i.e. Thorium glasses), circa 1930-40s but kept secret by Kodak, starting to be used more from the early 1950s.

- Use of electronic calculators for ray tracing, circa 1950s in Germany (Zuse computers)

- Retrofocus lens applied to 35mm cameras (Angenieux, early 1950s)

- First japanese electronic computer, the FUJIC (Fuji Photo Optical, 1956)

- More ubiquitous use of computers for lens design and optimization (circa 1968 and later)

- Artificial fluorite lenses: Canon 1969

- Aspheric glasses used on production normal lenses: Canon 1971

- Multi coating applied ubiquitously: Zeiss and Pentax, 1970 or 71.

later than that:

- Glass molded and "resin"-molded "hybrid" aspheric glasses: early 80s, many manufacturers (i think Canon was the first)

 

[cuthbert]

later than that:

- Glass molded and "resin"-molded "hybrid" aspheric glasses: early 80s, many manufacturers (i think Canon was the first)

Yes the first moulded aspherical element appeared in the humble zoom FD35-105 originally destined to the T series cameras:

It appears that Canon never advertised this lens much and they seems to have abandoned the technology.

 

[flavio81]

Yes the first moulded aspherical element appeared in the humble zoom FD35-105 originally destined to the T series cameras:

It appears that Canon never advertised this lens much and they seems to have abandoned the technology.

Not at all! Present in a LOT of EF lenses, from the advanced-amateur level to even some L lenses. (The most expensive L lenses sometime used grounded aspherical glass, not moulded.)

 

[Nodda Duma]

The current shift going on is the introduction of computational imaging. This is a hot topic of research but is useless for film. However it is causing changes in the optical design / system design world.

The next leap you'll see is the introduction of printable optics, which is exactly how it sounds: printed off a modified laserjet. Great cost savings for prototypes and small quantities. I've seen examples of these lenses and held them. My guess is they'll be productionized in 3-5 years. Maybe a little longer to make their way into consumer products.