Retrofocus lens design books

Detailing design methods for a variety of lens forms, this book shows that fixed focus and zoom lenses can be optimized, starting from planeparallel surfaces, in a brief time on a modern fast pc compared to traditional tools that. Retrofocus lenses are sometimes called reverse telephoto lenses because of this similar but opposite design. Non retrofocus wideangle lenses were manufactured for a relatively short period before newer retrofocus design wideangle and ultrawideangle lenses began coming to market. This makes them more prone to distortion and aberration in general. A comprehensive guide to camera lens design and zeiss. Famous lens names echo through the history of photography. The german optical systems manufacturer, carl zeiss, has had a 168 year legacy in creating some of the worlds best lenses. He discusses the mir1 in his book photographic optics 1978, on page 369. Lens design fundamentals rudolf kingslake, applied optics and optical design part 1 and part 2 a.

Also, there is a relationship with zoom lenses and retrofocus lenses and. Previously, combining the complexities of rectilinear superwide angle lenses, retrofocus lenses and zoom lenses seemed impossible. The invention of the camera in the early 19th century led to an array of lens designs intended for photography. The camera lens determines, to a great extent, the quality of the image produced in any camera and must be a major consideration when selecting a camera and lens for serious work. The mounting flange on an hasselblad is about 79mm from the film plane. I got mentors in different fields to help me with lens designs that i wasnt familiar with. Warren j smith this text features new and updated lens design tables as well as comprehensive instruction in the lens design process, both traditional and cad. The popularity of this lens design made the name retrofocus synonymous with this type of lens. Modern lens design mcgrawhill professional engineering. Nasse wrote a series of technical papers for carl zeiss detailing their modern lens history and genealogy.

It is the standard design for wideangle and fisheye lenses in slr and cine cameras where a conventional lens. Delving into the mechanics of lens design, this book reveals methods for designing lenses. Wideangle and sometimes normalfocus lenses for such cameras therefore use retrofocus designs. It was a retrofocus design, which meant that, unlike nonretrofocus. Jul 01, 2014 sometimes, the term symmetric lens is supposed to be taken with a lump of salt, meaning a lens that is neither telephoto nor retrofocus.

The optical configuration is similar to what we see in most retrofocus type lenses. Automatic and quasiautonomous computational methods and techniques is the first book that interactively describes the newest modern lens design tools. Practical computeraided lens design by gregory hallock smith. A photographers guide to characteristics, quality, use and design. All lenses in the book are mechanically beyond questioning. Chapter 14reversed telephoto retrofocus and fisheye lenses 14.

Most zoom lenses are a retrofocus design and include a prime lens group in the rear. Lens extrem wide angle fish eye retrofocus ii vivitar wide angle retrofocus distagon slr flektogon retrofocus plasmat kinoplasmat ultran noctilux quadruplets double gauss. Smith reveals timetested methods for designing topquality lenses. Basically, the objective of a retrofocus lens has the effect of a negative element. Mar 06, 2019 todays post by joe farace distagon is a name zeiss gives to its wideangle lenses that use a retrofocus design. The mirror is the equivalent of the reverse telephoto or retrofocus lens. If you have ever owned a hasselblad you most likely have a copy of ernst wildis the hasselblad manual virtual bible for hasselbald owners. For example, it is not uncommon for the rear element of a retrofocus lens of 18 mm to be more than 25 mm from the film plane.

Most standard range zooms even today keep that pattern. In still photography, a singlelens reflex camera requires a space for the reflex mirror, imposing a limit on the use of wideangle lenses of symmetric designs. While primarily a bible for the lens designer, practical computeraided lens design by gregory hallock smith serves also as a handbook for the optical systems engineer and as a source of historical and useful information for the technically minded photographer and astronomer. Whether a lens is sharp or not depends on the lens designers skill and the lens manufacturers care and accuracy. Unlike the first edition, which was more a collection of lens designs for use in larger projects, the 2nd edition of modern lens design is an optical howto. The protrusion of the rear lens element of wideangle lenses such as the canon 19mm f3. Optical system classification summer term 2012 herbert gross 1.

Invert the concept and you have a telephoto lens, by the way. Smith is chief scientist at kaiser electrooptics as well as an independent consultant. Retrofocus and wideangle lenses spie digital library. Delving deep into the mechanics of lens design, optics legend warren j. These use very large negative front elements to force. The angenieux lens line, the industrys cine lenses reference. Consequently any lens with a nominal focal length less than about 120mm is likely to be a retrofocus lens to some degree. Get the best deals on angenieux camera lenses when you shop the largest online selection at. Anyone shoot with the angenieux zoom with canon full frame.

Symmetrical vs asymmetrical lens design leica m lenses. Anyone can master the fundamentals of game designno technological expertise is necessary. It is rare to find such widespread utility in a single technical book. Field guide to lens design 2012 bentley publications. This is achieved by incorporating a special lens group known as a telephoto group that extends the light path to create a longfocus lens in a much shorter overall design. Historically, the retrofocus lens is a relatively new design. A retrofocus lens or reverse telephoto is composed of a negative lens group followed by a positive lens group producing a. Buy vestal unisex slr3l002 the retrofocus analog display quartz black watch and other wrist watches at. Chapter 16 handbook of optics photonics research group.

And no, those are not inherently sharper than telephoto or retrofocus designs. The retrofocus lens addressed this situation by increasing the distance between the rear element and the focal plane, thus making widerangle lenses usable while retaining normal viewing and focusing. Lens designers start with about a 35mm lens and add retrofocus elements in front of that lens to make the combined lens widerangle. Sep, 2011 the lens also has a bit of a retrofocus design with a negative element in front and a positive group near the rear in yellow. Use this book along with julie bentleys online course. It was the first superwide angle zoom lens for still cameras most 35mm slrs. With practical zemax examples joseph geary, are all great books. Conradys book, applied optics and optical design, parts one. The retro focus design allows a short focal length lens to accommodate the flangefocal distance of typical slrs, retaining infinity focus. The angenieux retrofocus photographic lens is a wideangle lens design that uses an inverted telephoto configuration. Looking at the complex designs of modern zooms, it can be somewhat difficult to see their heritage, but sometimes you can.

Vestal unisex slr3l002 the retrofocus analog display quartz. Originally developed for slr cameras requiring a long back focal distance for short focal lengths because of the mirror box the distance between the back lens element and the film plane must be considerably longer than the focal length, the distagon lenses retrofocus design are also ideal for mirrorless system cameras thanks to their optimized ray path. It deals with lens design software, primarily oslo and provides 7 comprehensive worked examples. Sounds fascinating, id like one, and the prices are only as frightening as other good lenses, but it sounds as though they are fragile and irrepairable, so probably best to.

Telephoto lens design allows the lens to be considerably more compact by moving the principal planes out in front of the lens. Angenieux wrote the book on wide angle lenses, and the term retrofocus on the lens pretty much sums that up. Retrofocus lenses are basically a regular focal length lens with a wideangle. Canon 19mm lenses 1964 canon rangefinder 19mm lenses. So the choice for designers seems to be either less resolution and more distortion or a bigger, heavier more costly lens. Overview introduction relays for freespace photonic switching relays for microlithography relays for periscope systems. In practice, retrofocus design is a matter of degree rather than kind. The problems of photographic lens design, creating a lens for a task that would cover a large, flat image plane, were well known even before the invention of photography due to the development of lenses to work with the focal plane of the camera obscura. With practical zemax examples joseph geary, are all great books, just to name a few. This design form is also used extensively in highquality commercial process lenses and in enlarging lenses.

And by midcentury most of the classic lens design forms had already been created. Sometimes known as a reverse telephoto design, retrofocus designs typically have outermost lens groups with negative power, with convergent. If you like what you see, follow our facebook page. Retrofocus lenses are designed to be positioned farther from the filmsensor plane in order to leave room for an slrs reflex mirror. The revolution in lens design that occurred from 1890 to 1905 allowed lens designers to develop much better wideangle lenses.

Produced in the 1950s by french camera company pierre angenieux, the name retrofocus was actually a product name for a lens that we identify as the retrofocus type today. With better glass available, the doublegauss type lenses became the basis used to design of a number of wideangle lenses. But to do so, the physics and elements inside the lens need be to completely different, and larger. Retrofocus lens is a reversed telephoto lens in which the front element is negative, moving the rear nodal plane from which the focal length is measured behind the rear of the lens. The sigmas allmoving eleven elementseven groupthree cell formula was a triumph of computeraided design and multicoating. Single lens reflex cameras need a certain minimum lens tofilm distance to accommodate the swinging mirror. Anyone can master the fundamentals of game design no technological expertise is necessary. Photographers guide to characteristics, quality, use and design. Field guide to lens design 2012 bentley publications spie. In the midtwentieth century, lens design was still a semi intuitive art, practiced by a few dedicated individuals of great perseverance, knowledge, and skill. Sep 19, 2012 secondly, leica lenses arent retrofocus lenses. During that half century, lens design has changed radically.

Short focal lenses are typically composed of glass elements whose shapes are symmetrically placed in front of and behind the diaphragm. This advanced design employed 9 elements in 7 groups, and is decribed in detail below. Your macro lens permits you to make closeups at a reproduction ratio of 1. Mechanical cams are still in widespread use for the practical realization of the required motions in zoom lenses. The process of designing lenses is both an art and a science. A book of lenses shows that the same basic principles of psychology that work for board games, card games and athletic games also are the keys to making topquality video games. Ultrawide 17 focal length, 100 degrees angle of view on 35mm format. A telephoto lens, in photography and cinematography, is a specific type of a longfocus lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. Today, you can purchase distortionfree retrofocus ultra wideangle lenses as wide as 14mm 114 aov and as fast as f2. Thankfully, there are a multitude of books on lens design, starting with the optics theory, optical system design, manufacturing technology, and yes, lens design methods too. Unlike telephoto lenses, where the light is coming into the lens from a narrow field of view, a wideangle lens must deal with light coming in from well, a wide angle. This is accomplished in the opposite way from retrofocus lenses. Were actually a one woman online operation for almost 20 years. He is the author of three prior books on lens design, including the first edition of this one, and the classics, modern optical engineering and practical optical system layout.

Their minimum working distance will be their focal length plus the distance form the. Retrofocus refers to a type of lens design, pioneered and originally trademarked by pierre angenieux in the early 1950s, which permits a short lens optical focal length while providing a greater back focus distance. Mar 08, 2011 the second reason is that the reverse telephoto lens is very difficult to design. Published in 1964 and long out of print,copies of coxs a system of optical design are covered by experienced lens designers simply because a small section of the book features lens design examples. Beginners and experts alike will turn to this book as. Initial lot of lenses, designed, manufactured and handassembled in japan by mr sadayasu miyazaki. Purposely built for cinematic production, our lenses achieve excellence in design, mechanical and optical perfection. In spite of that, a lot of lens design books and textbooks that i have read rely heavily.

Smith, and optical system design robert fischer, introduction to lens design. Check out the new look and enjoy easier access to your favorite features. They dubbed their lenses distagon, derived from distance and the previously mentioned greek word for angle, a wideangle lens with a large distance to the image. The lens also has a bit of a retrofocus design with a negative element in front and a positive group near the rear in yellow. The retrofocus lens solves this proximity problem through an asymmetrical design that allows the rear element to be farther away from the film plane than its effective focal length would suggest. Angenieux provides a unique range of lenses perfectly suited for productions ranging from top quality to midrange. Nonretrofocus wideangle lenses were manufactured for a relatively short period before newer retrofocus design wideangle and ultrawideangle lenses began coming to market. It was introduced in 1950 by veb carl zeiss jena, the east german zeiss optics plant. He was the author of modern optical engineering, modern lens design, and practical optical system layout and use of stock lenses. Since the principal planes are out in front of the lens, telephoto lenses will have additional working distance when compared to their focal length. As the focal length decreases, the distance from the rear element to the film. Its not quite that simple because many design compromises must be made for good optical performance with the combined lenses. Zebase 6 includes a copy of milton laikins book, lens design.

Welcome to retro focus eyewear retro focus eyewear. Retrofocus lenses are generally confined to the short focal length slr lenses typically less than about 50 mm. This guide offers a complete, dedicated treatment of all types of lenses for all types of cameras, including digital. While advancements in the field over the past two centuries have done much to transform it from the former category to the latter, much of the lens design process remains encapsulated in the experience and knowledge of industry veterans. This prompted the development of wide field of view lenses with more complex retrofocus optical designs. Once again wildi exhibits his mastery of photographic equipment in this book, photographic lenses.

Apr 08, 20 here is a photo of the rare angenieux 3570mm f2. Retrofocus lenses, and the terms reversetelephoto and retrofocus are fairly. The development of wideangle lenses lens rentals blog. Our wide selection is eligible for free shipping and free returns. The introduction of the computer revolutionized the way lenses optical systems are designed and evaluated.

Design of optical relay systems lens design opti 517 jose sasian college of optical sciences university of arizona tucson, arizona 85721 usa. A wide angle lens is also one that projects a substantially larger image circle than would be typical for a standard design lens of the same focal length. Telephoto lenses have positive lenses in the front of the lens and negative lenses in the rear of the lens. Dec 30, 2014 a comprehensive guide to camera lens design and zeiss nomenclature december 30, 2014 edward t. Good game design happens when you view your game from many different perspectives. It is the standard design for wideangle and fisheye lenses in slr and cine cameras where a conventional lens would foul the shutter mechanism. A comprehensive guide to camera lens design and zeiss nomenclature. We have not included any specific design examples of lenses for largeformat. Zeiss oberkochen, in what was then west germany chose to use the same retrofocus design. This technology requires that the motions themselves be controlled at the design stage to be reasonably monotonic and often to have certain mutual. He is the author of three prior books on lens design, including the first edition of this one, and the classics, modern optical engineering and practical. Fujifilm has designed new lenses that are not anymore modifications of the film lens design.

The fuji lenses cannot be used on any other camera system, although the design seems to me a further development of the distagon retrofocus concept. Such examples are notoriously difficult to find and the hundredodd pages of coxs book that. Both a practical book of tested lens designs and an introduction to the topic. Jun 11, 2010 in practice, retrofocus design is a matter of degree rather than kind. Zebase 6 is a collection of over 600 sequential optical designs in opticstudio format on cd. Ultra compact design, weight 60g, 100g with hood, only 10. Camera lenses have been discussed in a large number of books and articles. In august 1964, canon introduced an extreme lens extreme in its ultrawide focal length, and extreme in the sophistication of its design and quality of its images. Free shipping on many items browse your favorite brands. Milton laikins book, lens design, gives insight into the engineering problems of each lens design type and practical solutions that are expensive to discover independently. Design of optical relay systems university of arizona. The revolution in lens design that occurred from 1890 to 1905. Shortfocus, wideangle lenses are usually mounted near the film.