120° (12mm focal length for the 35mm film format) is about the practical limit for retrofocus designs; 90° (21mm focal length) for non-retrofocus lenses. Herbert Keppler, "SLR: Perspective, Controlled: What's your personal focal? pp 22, 30-31, 68, 132. Images from the 2009 Panasonic 14-140mm f/4-5.8 G VARIO ASPH. Surface reflection was a major limiting factor in nineteenth century lens design. [220][221], German lenses disappear from this history at this point. Popular Photography & Imaging, Volume 70 Number 1; January 2006. 2.13M effective pixel back-illuminated CMOS image sensors IMX290LQR and IMX291LQR with improved sensitivity in the visible-light and near … [130] The first inverted telephoto imaging lens was the Taylor, Taylor & Hobson 35mm f/2 (1931, UK) developed to provide back-focus space for the beamsplitter prism used by the full-color via three negatives Technicolor motion picture camera. Stephen Gandy, "The 1941 Kodak Ektra," from. Both have cell separation equal to cell focal length difference to maintain the focal plane.[159][160]. The Sonnar lens: Bertele’s genius in lens design 1. Lake Success, NY: Canon U.S.A. Inc., 5/2010. Anonymous, "Modern Photography's Annual Guide to 47 Top Cameras: Rollei 35," p 157. What finally killed it? With an accessory camera adapter, they are 4000mm f/11 to f/8 equivalent.[230][231]. [201] Like the Kiron 28-210mm, the twelve element/eight group/three cell Tokina had a small variable maximum aperture, but added low dispersion glass and a new bidirectional nonlinear zooming action, to bring size and weight down to an absolute minimum.[202]. [264] Its Vibration Reduction system could detect and counteract handheld camera/lens unsteadiness, allowing sharp photographs of static subjects at shutter speeds much slower than normally possible without a tripod. [157][158], An afocal attachment is a more sophisticated supplementary lens. Although the moment of closest conjunction is the highlight, try observing the narrowing separation of Jupiter and Saturn in the weeks before 21 December. The Zoomar was an "optically compensated" zoom. [214][215] Japanese camera production surpassed West German output in 1962. [179] However, efforts to improve them were ongoing. Beginning with the MD series lenses, additional layers were introduced as standard, although it is clear that for all lenses in any series, improvements in coatings were gradually introduced into production lenses as they were developed. It was only when Zeiss Ikon were designing the Contax in response to the success of the Leica that a 50mm Tessar which could cover the 24x36mm format was designed. The Foton's standard lens was the Taylor, Taylor & Hobson Cooke Amotal Anastigmat 2 inch f/2 (T/2.2) (1948; camera USA; lens UK, a Double Gauss). Lars Rehm & Andy Westlake, "Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 Review," from, Andy Westlake, "Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-150mm 1:4-5.6 review," from, Rudolf Kingslake, A history of the photographic lens, page 23, Michael R. Peres, Focal encyclopedia of photography: digital imaging, theory and applications, page 55, "Minolta's 'weak lenses' - facts, not bias! pp 60, 73. The Protar was originally called the Anastigmat, but that descriptive term quickly became generic and the lens was given a fanciful name in 1900. p 33. Here's how I found mine." pp 54-56. pp 27, 36. [235][236], Internal focusing was originally popular in heavyweight, wide-aperture telephoto lenses for professional press, sports and wildlife photographers, because it made their handling easier. 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[1] due to the development of lenses to work with the focal plane of the camera obscura. A Barlow lens is a diverging lens that increases the effective focal length of the optical system. Note, "retrofocus" was an Angénieux trademark before losing exclusive status. [99][100] The first telephoto lens optically corrected and fixed as a system was the f/8 Busch Bis-Telar (Germany) of 1905. [94] The design appears in other applications where a simple fast normal lens is required (~53° diagonal) such as in projectors. [149] The Makro-Kilar was a Tessar mounted in an extra long draw triple helical. [256], Since autofocus is primarily an electromechanical feature of the camera, not an optical one of the lens, it did not greatly influence lens design. The Biogon and Hologon designs take advantage of the large negative elements to limit the light falloff of regular wide angle lenses. Popular Photography, Volume 66 Number 6; June 2002. Michael J. McNamara, "Test: Sony Alpha 100 DSLR: Mix Master: Blending a proven DSLR, 10.2MP sensor, and cool technology," pp 64, 66, 68. Most early zoom lenses produced mediocre, or even poor, images. [2] These lenses were found lacking. [56], The front and rear cells of early telephotos were unmatched and the rear cell also magnified any aberrations, as well as the image, of the imaging cell. page 16.2." pp 26-27. Typical F-numbers could be F4.5, F4, F3.5. [163][164] Afocal attachments are still available for digital point-and-shoot cameras.[165][166]. Ellis I. Betensky, "Handbook of Optics. The Panasonic 14-140mm lens also has its chromatic aberration corrected. A real lens will not produce images of expected quality if it is not constructed to or cannot stay in specification. [222][223] Names for design types also disappear at this point. In the Celestron Onyx f/6.25 APO these eyepiece-Barlow combinations resulted in magnifications as low as 83x and as high as 225x (71x/inch and 0.35mm exit pupil). Herbert Keppler, "Inside Straight: Rating Game: Why and how photographers went crazy testing lenses," pp 36-37. The telescope also comes with 2x Barlow Lens that adds to the efficiency of the magnifying power. Read on." History and background. However, SLR cameras require that lenses be mounted far enough in front of the film to provide space for the movement of the mirror (the "mirror box"); about 40 mm for a 35mm SLR compared to less than 10 mm in non-SLR 35mm cameras. [146], Strictly speaking, macrophotography is technical photography with actual image size ranging from near life-size (1:1 image-to-object ratio) to about ten or twenty times life-size (10 or 20:1 ratio, at which photomicrography begins). [143] The Sky was 21mm f/8 producing 63mm diameter images. Because of national chauvinism, the Petzval did not win the prize, despite being far superior to all other entries. Apparently the Japanese are not fans of lens names, they use only brand names and feature codes for their lens lines. The increasing resolving power of new generations of lenses have been used to maintain a relatively equal level of print quality--and therefore higher levels of enlargement--compared with preceding eras. [citation needed] However, commercial reflector astronomical Maksutov–Cassegrain and Schmidt–Cassegrain telescopes with 14 to 20 inch (or even larger) diameter primary mirrors are available. Convertible lenses, still used by large format film photographers (insofar as large format photography is used), consisting of two cells that could be used individually or screwed together, giving three-lenses-in-one,[198] date back to at least the Zeiss Convertible Protar (Germany) of 1894. [108] World War II interrupted all consumer camera production and coated lenses did not appear in large numbers until the late 1940s. was standardized in 1949. pp 34, 36, 38, 40. [213] The Nikkor and the Topcor were sure signs of the Japanese optical industry eclipsing the Germans'. Jason Schneider, "Bokeh: Splendor In The Glass. Bokeh is now a normal lens design parameter for very high quality lenses. It originated as the Nikkor-P 10.5 cm f/2.5 (1954) for the Nikon S series 35mm RF, was optically upgraded in 1971 and available until 2006. [204], Japanese photographic lens production dates from 1931 with the Konishiroku (Konica) Hexar 10.5 cm f/4.5[205] for the Konishiroku Tropical Lily small plate camera. Jason Schneider, "How The Japanese Camera Took Over: Before we ever heard of it, the Japanese camera industry was already perfecting western designs. For example, Nippon Kogaku always apologetically acknowledged that Takashi Higuchi's Zoom-Nikkor Auto 43-86mm f/3.5, the first popular zoom lens, did not meet its normal image quality standards. Field lens: A correcting lens placed just before the image plane of a telescope. "Was ist eigentlich "Elmar"? Although image stabilization is an electromechanical breakthrough, not optical, it was the biggest new feature of the 1990s. At about this time the image quality of zooms was noticed to be equalled that of primes. Anonymous, "More What's New For '85: Kiron stretches zoom range from 28mm to 210mm!!" Nonetheless, the Hologon had a standard accessory radially graduated 2 stop neutral density filter to ensure completely even exposure. On average, lenses are sharper today than they were in the past. Image stabilized lenses were initially very expensive and used mostly by professional photographers. The Rapid-Rectilinear and Aplanat lenses were scalable over many focal lengths and fields of view for all contemporaneous media, and they were the standard moderate-aperture, general-purpose lenses for more than half a century. [237], Note, floating elements and internal focusing produces a zooming effect and the effective focal length of an FE or IF lens at closest focusing distance can be one-third shorter than the marked focal length.[238]. Topcon in particular was highly avant-garde in producing two ultra-fast lenses by 1960 - the R-Topcor 300 F2.8 (1958) and the R-Topcor 135 F2 (1960). The first general purpose photographic catadioptric lens was Dmitri Maksutov 1944 MTO (Maksutov Tele-Objectiv) 500mm f/8 Maksutov–Cassegrain configuration, adapted from his 1941 Maksutov telescope. Kouichi Ohshita, "Legendary Lens: Tale 36: Nikkor P.C 8.5 cm f/2." The Series 1 used a single control ring: twist to focus, push-pull to zoom – a "one touch" zoom. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. The distance from the Hologon's rear element to the film was only 4.5 mm.[140]. Some afocal attachments, such as the Zeiss Tele-Mutar 1.5× and Wide-Angle-Mutar 0.7× (1963, West Germany) for various fixed lens Franke and Heidecke Rolleiflex brand 120 roll film twin-lens reflex cameras, were of higher quality and price, but still not equal to true interchangeable lenses in image quality. Andrew Brandt, et al, "Dawn of the Megazooms: For many photographers, a powerful optical zoom may be more valuable than a mountain of megapixels. pp 10, 14. Alas, it was too good to be really reliable." Since afocal attachments are not an integral part of the main lens' formula, they degrade image quality and are not appropriate for critical applications. [48], The modern lens aperture markings of f-numbers in geometric sequence of f/1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64, 90, etc. The Protar's front achromat used older glass, but the rear achromat used high index glass. [38], It was known in the 1500s that an aperture stop would improve lens image quality. [113] Although the 3.5cm f/3.5 lens did not sell well due to the slow aperture, a more modern, multicoated Super Rokkor 3.5cm f/1.8 was later produced for the 35 IIB shortly before the system was discontinued, and therefore the lens is extremely rare today. [153] However, their focal lengths tend to be longer than the Makro-Kilar to allow more working distance. pp 49, 51. Traditionally, time-consuming hand computation limited lens designers to correcting aberrations for the in-focus image only, with little consideration given to the out-of-focus image. We use cookies to improve your experience on our website. began using "floating elements" – zoom-like differential cell movement in nested helicals for better close-up performance. Anonymous, "Modern Tests: Konica C35AF: First Auto-Focus Still Camera," pp 136-139. Small aperture 35mm format lenses were made practical by the availability of snapshot quality, high sensitivity ISO 400 color films in the 1980s (and ISO 800 in the 1990s), as well as cameras with built-in flash units. The 400 DO lens had a multilayer diffractive element containing concentric circular diffraction gratings to take advantage of diffraction's opposite color dispersion (compared to refraction) to correct chromatic and spherical aberrations with less low dispersion glass, fewer aspheric surfaces and less bulk.[276][277][278]. [145], Note, it is impossible to have 180° rectilinear coverage because of light falloff. Believe it!" page 16.5." "Macro" lenses were originally regular formula lenses optimized for close object distances, mounted on a long extension tube or bellows accessory to provide the necessary close focusing, but preventing focusing on distant objects. We’ve included an accessory tray to store accessories conveniently and a free download of our BONUS Starry Night Basic Edition astronomy software with information on 36,000 celestial objects, printable sky maps, and more. The Voigtländer-Petzval was the first camera and lens specifically designed to take photographs, instead of being simply a modified artist's camera obscura. Niépce began using Wollaston Meniscus in 1828. They remain a standard lens on today's amateur digital SLRs,[195] attaining up to 19X. Primacy was never established and no patent was ever granted for the first telephoto lens. For example, Ludwig Bertele's Zeiss Biogon 21mm f/4.5,[136] released in 1954 for the Contax IIA (1950, West Germany) 35mm RF, and its evolution, the Zeiss Hologon 15mm f/8[137] of 1969, fixed to the Zeiss Ikon Hologon Ultrawide (West Germany), were roughly symmetrical designs. What are they and what are they doing?" Bennett Sherman, "Techniques Tomorrow: Just what goes into the new ED glass tele lenses that makes them bigger, better?" Anonymous, "Modern Tests: Vivitar Series 1 70-210 f/2.8-4 Zoom," pp 58-59. pp 106, 108. A telephoto lens has a front positive cell and rear negative cell;[129] retrofocus lenses have the negative cell in front and positive cell to the rear. The main development was due to Taylor Hobson in the 1920s, resulting in the f/2.0 Opic and later the Speed Panchro designs, which were licensed to various other manufacturers. Herbert Keppler, "First Look: Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D: Anti-Shake Shake-Up: The anti-shake's in the body!" Anonymous, "Digital and 35mm Dominates in Disney's Domain: Fantastic new photo equipment unveiled at biggest U.S. trade show [Photo Marketing Association (PMA) 2001]" pp 58, 60, 138. The Petzval Portrait remains popular as a projection lens where the narrow angles involved mean the field curvature is not significant. Joseph Petzval (of modern Slovakia) was a mathematics professor with no optical physics experience, but, with the aid of several human computers of the Austro-Hungarian army, he took up the challenge of producing a lens fast enough for a daguerreotype portrait. Therefore, a lens must produce a minimum resolution of forty lines per millimeter on a 24×36 mm 35mm film negative if it is to provide a linear enlargement of eight times to an A4 (210×297 mm or 8.27×11.69 inch) print and still appear sharp when viewed at 30 cm. As of 2010, there have been only two expensive professional level diffractive optics lenses for consumer cameras,[279] but if the technology proves useful, prices will drop and its popularity will rise. The Kino Precision Kiron 28-210mm f/4-5.6 (Japan) of 1985 was the first very large ratio focal length zoom lens for still cameras (most 35mm SLRs). pp 14-16, 22. Bob Schwalberg, "History of Macro Lenses," p 79. Before cleaning with fluid and tissue, blow any loose particles off the lens with a blower bulb or compressed air. The Kodak Anastigmat Special 100mm f/3.5 on the Kodak Super Six-20 (1938, USA), the first autoexposure still camera, was a Tessar,[76] as was the D. Zuiko 2.8 cm f/3.5 on the Olympus Pen (1959, Japan), the original Pen half frame camera;[77] the Schneider S-Xenar 40mm f/3.5 on the late version of the Rollei 35 (1974, West Germany/Singapore);[78][79] and the AF Nikkor D 45mm f/2.8P Special Edition for the Nikon FM3A (2001, Japan), the last manual focus 35mm SLR released by a major maker. from. [18], The Portrait was illegally copied by every lens maker, and Petzval had a nasty falling out with Peter Voigtländer over unpaid royalties and died an embittered old man. pp 82, 86, 92-93, 136. pp 32, 217. pp 18, 30. [281], Lenses have already appeared whose image quality would have been marginal or unacceptable in the film era, but are acceptable in the digital era because the cameras for which they are intended automatically correct their defects. [36][37], The Landscape, the Portrait, the Globe, and the Rapid-Rectilinear/Aplanat constituted the nineteenth-century photographer's entire lens arsenal. [255] However, glass is superior to plastic for lens making in many respects – its refractive index, temperature stability, mechanical strength and variety is higher. On 22 June 1839, Daguerre contracted Alphonse Giroux (France) to manufacture his daguerreotype apparatus. Cox, pp 106-107, 110-111, 116, 120, 122-123, 136. pp 34-35, 74. Dan Richards, "Lens Special: Behind The Glass: Lessons from 444 lens tests." [186] However, they never gained much of a foothold in the United States,[187] although 70-210mm telephoto zooms were very popular as second lenses. The elements were all of such strong power that they were highly sensitive to misalignment and required tight manufacturing tolerances for the era. Then apply some cleaning fluid to a tissue, never directly on the optics. The Elmar was based on a modified Cooke Triplet with a different computation to the Tessar and with the stop in the first air space. This prompted the development of wide field of view lenses with more complex retrofocus optical designs. This can be prevented by using elements with convoluted aspheric curves. The current design can be traced back to 1895, when Paul Rudolph of Carl Zeiss Jena used cemented doublets as the central lenses to correct for chromatic aberration. Anonymous. The real truth! The first common very wide aperture lens suitable for candid available light photography was the Ernemann Ernostar (Germany) of 1923. Minolta (as Chiyoda Kōgaku Seikō) produced the world's first multicoated consumer photographic lens in 1956 for their 'Minolta 35 Model II' rangefinder camera - the Rokkor 3.5cm f/3.5 - with their patented Achromatic Coating. [190], The need for one lens able to do everything, or at least as much as possible, was an influence on lens design in the last quarter century. However, this causes off-axis light to be focused closer to the lens than axial rays (spherical aberration); especially severe in wide angle or wide aperture lenses. During the 1990s, point-and-shoot cameras with compact small aperture zooms were the dominant camera type. Herbert Keppler, "Keppler's SLR Notebook: [Vivitar Series 1 200mm f/3.5] Autofocus Through-Lens Tele For 35mm SLRs Focuses Faster, Sharper Than You Can!!" Julia Silber, "Lens Test: Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G DX VR AF-S: Super Superzoom," p 67. [26][27], Symmetry was discovered in the 1850s to automatically correct the distortion, coma, and transverse chromatic distortions. [162] Before the zoom lens, afocal attachments were a way to provide a cheap sort of interchangeable lens system to an otherwise fixed lens camera. For example: the human eye can resolve about five lines per millimeter at a distance of 30 cm (about one foot). [170], The first zoom lens for still cameras was the Voigtländer-Zoomar 36-82mm f/2.8 (USA/West Germany) of 1959,[171] for Voigtländer Bessamatic series (1959, West Germany) 35mm leaf shutter SLRs. Bennett Sherman, "Techniques Tomorrow: Resolving the dilemma of the resolving power figures used for lenses by MODERN's test lab," pp 10, 12, 141. SMC was not a Pentax invention, but a patented and licensed process invented by coating pioneers OCLI (Optical Coating Laboratory Incorporated).[118]. [13] This design was copied by other lens makers. ISSN 0895-321X. In the nineteenth century, opticians dug to the level of the Seidel aberrations--called mathematically the third-order aberrations--to reach basic anastigmatic correction. A real zoom lens needs a compensating cell to push the focal plane back to the appropriate place and took decades of development to become practical. Charles Harrison and Joseph Schnitzer's Globe had a symmetric four-element formula; the name refers to the consideration that if the two outer surfaces were continued and then joined, they would form a sphere. For example, the Argus Cintar 50mm f/3.5 for the Argus C3 (1937, USA), probably the best-selling rangefinder camera of all time, used a Cooke triplet.[73].