Design Configuration starting points

Under construction, Added 3-4-2015 by S. Sparrold

Instead of starting an optical design from scratch, commercial optics or plane parallel plates, one can begin from a pre-existing optical design. My favorite graph for understanding this is from Smith's "Modern Lens design", he has a graph of F/# versus FoV and has bubble charts for different design configurations. If you don't have the book, this website is a good starting point. Find your starting configuration by:
  • Smith's "Modern Lens design"
  • A patent search
  • Laiken's Book
  • Zebase 
  • This grass roots community webpage with Zemax prescriptions.
  • Lens View, If you're lucky to have scored a license before it went dark.

Here are some of my quick reference notes on how to build some basic configurations:

Petzval lens

Two positive elements. Has large field curvature so only usable over a small field. Each lens bends the marginal ray equally. Geary shows that F1=2*Ft and F2=Ft/2, and the lens to lens spacing is ~Ft (Laikin claims spacing is Ft/2?)

(Perhaps add this as another page with graphics and equations?)

Telephoto and inverse telephoto lenses
See web page here, under construction



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