Re: Fun!!! Large Format Lens Question. Low tech answer

On 26-Feb-2005 J. Lehmus wrote:

> I understand from the following that it might be possible to obtain
> quality images with a homemade box camera with a lens from a simple
> magnifying glass. Am I correct?
>

It depends on what you mean by "quality". Some high quality telescopes use
simple achromats, but are slow (high f-number) and have a very small angular
field, of order 1 degree. There are reasons that quality photo lenses
typically use 4 or more glass elements. Single glass element lenses have only
been used on the very cheapest cameras for more than a century. Even a
two-element achromat is a dramatic improvement. Experiment with a using a
magnifying glass as a photo lens, but don't expect the same performance as a
modern photographic lens.

--Michael
Received on Sat Feb 26 19:48:23 2005