Science for the Curious Photographer, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 7 The Simple Thin Lens and What it Does

 

 

A thin lens is a design tool, used to simulate a real lens during the preliminary stages of optical system design and analysis.

—BRUCE WALKER

 

 

 

7.1 Introduction

The earliest lenses were made of polished crystals, and it was not until the Middle Ages that glass lenses were produced. By the 13th century, glass lenses were good enough to be used in spectacles for the correction of presbyopia. More complicated optical instruments such as telescopes require lenses of sufficient uniformity that they can be used in pairs to obtain magnification. The master spectacle maker Hans Lipperhey of Middelburg improved lens grinding techniques and in 1608 was able to present a telescope to Prince ...