![]() With this terminology, the lens designer today is more often called an optical designer, though the older term is still widely used, along with such whimsical descriptive names as "ray bender." It is increasingly common today for "lens designer" to be but one of a number of titles worn by an optical engineering generalist (who may or may not have a specific optics background - many people doing lens design today are physicists or other types of engineers by original training). We refer to these as lens elements, and the complete lens is more generally called an optical system. If you cut one open (don't try this at home, kids!), you'd find that such a camera lens contains a number of single "lenses" of different shapes and sizes. ![]() ![]() This is closer to what we think of when we discuss interchangeable "lenses" for a 35 mm SLR (single lens reflex) camera (e.g., normal, wide angle, telephoto, zoom). To a lens designer, though, a lens is a more general device, basically any system that tries to collect and distribute light in a specifically desired way. ![]() Well, right - this is one type of lens, and the most common type at that (most eyeglass and contact lenses are this type). So what is a lens? You might think this is a simple question - just a curved piece of clear glass or plastic, right?
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