Thin lens?

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ChrisR
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Thin lens?

Post by ChrisR »

https://insights.globalspec.com/article ... or-imaging

Some of the right side "related links" are interesting too.
Chris R

MarkSturtevant
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Post by MarkSturtevant »

I have heard about this from time to time. A cool bit is that the lens can be printed directly onto a camera sensor. If this product becomes viable, I wonder if you could wear your camera like a wrist watch.
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rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

MarkSturtevant wrote:A cool bit is that the lens can be printed directly onto a camera sensor.
I know that's what the narration says, but I think they've played a bit fast and loose with that idea.

My understanding is that the technology is rather like a Fresnel lens carried to the limit. It makes the lens itself thin, but does not remove the need to have the lens separated from the sensor by a distance basically equal to the lens's focal length. You could certainly cover a large sensor with an array of such lenses having short focal length, each pointing is a different direction, but then you'd run into the problem that each lens would have only a tiny aperture and thus low spatial resolution in the far field, rather like an insect's eye.

If that interpretation is not correct, I would greatly appreciate some references that could set me straight on the issue.

--Rik

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