Lens Test: Can Your Lens Vendor Perform It Effectively?
Can Your Lens Vendor Test Your Lens?
Before committing to a lens manufacturer, make sure they can actually test what they build. This post covers common and specialized lens tests, from focal length and MTF to wavefront error and stray light, and explains why discussing test capabilities with your vendor is just as important as reviewing their pricing.
Lens attachments for smartphone cameras
In the past several years, smartphone cameras have taken a big step forward. The image quality of the best iPhone, Samsung, and HTC cameras is equivalent to low-priced Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony DSLR cameras. Many prefer taking photos with smartphones due to their convenience, compact size, network connection, and huge array of applications. Smartphone […]
Anamorphic lenses
There are two lens classes that can be used in film making – spherical and anamorphic. Spherical lenses are more common and have wider applications. A rectangular film gate or imaging sensor area acts as the field stop determining both the field of view (FOV) angular extents and the format aspect ratio. An increase in […]
Essential Optical Materials for Superior Infrared and Thermal Optics Selection
The selection of optical materials is a critical step in the design of infrared optics. Traditional optical materials (optical glasses and plastics) used in the design of visible radiation optics aren’t suitable due to their high light absorption coefficient in the infrared range. Special materials with minimal possible absorption coefficients for infrared light are required. […]
Steering Mirrors In LIDAR Systems
This is our third installment of a four-series blogs about steering mirrors. We have talked previously about steering mirrors in laser markings and steering mirrors in OCT systems. This week, we will talk about the steering mirror requirements for those in LIDAR systems. In the past we, have talked about the lens design in LIDAR […]
10 suppliers of off-the-shelf lenses
In certain projects, the best lens design choice is not to design. While high volume production costs savings for a custom design are considerable, there are times when delivery time requirements don’t permit the use of a custom design, or when an existing lens used in high volume for a different application can be re-purposed. […]