Art Of Lens Design

Introduction

     Lens design is a complicated field, but it is a very important one. Lenses go into a lot of different things. For example, you have camera lenses, eyeglasses lenses, microscope lenses, and a variety of other lenses. Even though there is a wide use of lenses, they are all designed in pretty much the same way.

Steps for Lens Design

     The first thing that is considered when designing a lens is the use that it is going to serve. Depending on the function, it will have a different number of elements and they will do different things. The common functions of each element are providing magnification, reducing distortion, or correcting color. These three things are all very important and depending on the shape of the lens is what it does. The next step after determining the function of the lens being designed is drawing a blueprint of it. The engineers make a picture of each type of element in their groups, till they have a picture that they think will yield the results they want. Then they finally assemble a prototype lens. After that, they do a lot of testing and modifications till the lens functions as planned.

Conclusion

     The main components of a lens are glass elements with different thicknesses and curvatures. These work together so the lens can magnify things or do whatever its job is. Most people use lenses every day, but they don’t think of the work that went into designing them. If you wear glasses or contacts, then you are using a simple lens. Those that take pictures or do science work use a lot more complicated lenses. No matter what the lens is for though, the same amount of work goes into designing them. Some lenses take years to be designed an calibrated correctly, so they can be put on the market.

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