A true zoom lens or optical zoom lens is a type of parfocal lens, one that maintains focus when its focal length changes.[1] Most consumer zoom lenses do not maintain perfect focus, but are still nearly parfocal. Most camera phones that are advertised as having optical zoom actually use a few cameras of different but fixed focal length, combined with digital zoom to make a hybrid system.
The convenience of variable focal length comes at the cost of complexity – and some compromises on image quality, weight, dimensions, aperture, autofocus performance, and cost. For example, all zoom lenses suffer from at least slight, if not considerable, loss of image resolution at their maximum aperture, especially at the extremes of their focal length range. This effect is evident in the corners of the image, when displayed in a large format or high resolution. The greater the range of focal length a zoom lens offers, the more exaggerated these compromises must become.[2]
Characteristics
A photograph taken with a zoom lens, whose focal length was varied during the course of the exposure
Zoom lenses are often described by the ratio of their longest to shortest focal lengths. For example, a zoom lens with focal lengths ranging from 100mm to 400mm may be described as a 4:1 or "4×" zoom. The term superzoom or hyperzoom is used to describe photographic zoom lenses with very large focal length factors, typically more than 5× and ranging up to 19× in SLR camera lenses and 22× in amateur digital cameras. This ratio can be as high as 300× in professional television camera lenses.[3] As of 2009, photographic zoom lenses beyond about 3× cannot generally produce imaging quality on par with prime lenses. Constant fast aperture zooms (usually f/2.8 or f/2.0) are typically restricted to this zoom range. Quality degradation is less perceptible when recording moving images at low resolution, which is why professional video and TV lenses are able to feature high zoom ratios. High zoom ratio TV lenses are complex, with dozens of optical elements, often weighing more than 25kg (55lb).[4] Digital photography can also accommodate algorithms that compensate for optical flaws, both within in-camera processors and post-production software.
Some photographic zoom lenses are long-focus lenses, with focal lengths longer than a normal lens, some are wide-angle lenses (wider than normal), and others cover a range from wide-angle to long-focus. Lenses in the latter group of zoom lenses, sometimes referred to as "normal" zooms,[citation needed] have displaced the fixed focal length lens as the popular one-lens selection on many contemporary cameras. The markings on these lenses usually say W and T for "Wide" and "Telephoto". Telephoto is designated because the longer focal length supplied by the negative diverging lens is longer than the overall lens assembly (the negative diverging lens acting as the "telephoto group").[5]
Unusual trailed-zoom view of a VLT telescope building
Some digital cameras allow cropping and enlarging of a captured image, in order to emulate the effect of a longer focal length zoom lens (narrower angle of view). This is commonly known as digital zoom and produces an image of lower optical resolution than optical zoom. Exactly the same effect can be obtained by using digital image processing software on a computer to crop the digital image and enlarge the cropped area. Many digital cameras have both, combining them by first using the optical, then the digital zoom.
Early forms of zoom lenses were used in optical telescopes to provide continuous variation of the magnification of the image, and this was first reported in the proceedings of the Royal Society in 1834. Early patents for telephoto lenses also included movable lens elements which could be adjusted to change the overall focal length of the lens. Lenses of this kind are now called varifocal lenses, since when the focal length is changed, the position of the focal plane also moves, requiring refocusing of the lens after each change.
The first true zoom lens, which retained near-sharp focus while the effective focal length of the lens assembly was changed, was patented in 1902 by Clile C. Allen (U.S. patent 696,788).[7]:155 An early use of the zoom lens in cinema can be seen in the opening shot of the movie "It" starring Clara Bow, from 1927. The first industrial production was the Bell and HowellCooke "Varo" 40–120mm lens for 35mm movie cameras introduced in 1932.[7]:156 The most impressive early TV Zoom lens was the VAROTAL III, from Rank Taylor Hobson from UK built in 1953.
Canon camera with a 35~70 f/2.8~3.5 zoom lens. The advantage of a zoom lens is the flexibility, but the disadvantage is the optical quality. Prime lenses have a greater image quality in comparison.
The Kilfitt 36–82mm/2.8 Zoomar lens introduced in 1959 was the first varifocal lens in regular production for still 35mm photography.[8] The first modern film zoom lens, the Pan-Cinor, was designed around 1950 by Roger Cuvillier, a French engineer working for SOM-Berthiot. It had an optical compensation zoom system. In 1956, Pierre Angénieux introduced the mechanical compensation system, enabling precise focus while zooming, in his 17-68mm lens for 16mm released in 1958. The same year a prototype of the 35mm version of the Angénieux 4x zoom, the 35-140mm was first used by cinematographer Roger Fellous for the production of Julie La Rousse. Angénieux received a 1964 technical award from the academy of motion pictures for the design of the 10 to 1 zoom lenses, including the 12-120mm for 16mm film cameras and the 25-250mm for 35mm film cameras.
Because of their relative bulk, it wasn't until as recently as 1986 that a zoom lens was designed with sufficiently compact dimensions and finally found its way into a consumer compact (point and shoot) camera, this being the Pentax Zoom 70.
Since then advances in optical lens design, particularly the use of computers for optical ray tracing, has made the design and construction of zoom lenses much easier, and they are now used widely in professional and amateur photography.[7]:167
A simple zoom lens system. The three lenses of the afocal system are L1, L2, L3 (from left). L1 and L2 can move to the left and right, changing the overall focal length of the system (see image below).
There are many possible designs for zoom lenses, the most complex ones having upwards of thirty individual lens elements and multiple moving parts. Most, however, follow the same basic design. Generally they consist of a number of individual lenses that may be either fixed or slide axially along the body of the lens. While the magnification of a zoom lens changes, it is necessary to compensate for any movement of the focal plane to keep the focused image sharp. This compensation may be done by mechanical means (moving the complete lens assembly while the magnification of the lens changes) or optically (arranging the position of the focal plane to vary as little as possible while the lens is zoomed).
A simple scheme for a zoom lens divides the assembly into two parts: a focusing lens similar to a standard, fixed-focal-length photographic lens, preceded by an afocal zoom system, an arrangement of fixed and movable lens elements that does not focus the light, but alters the size of a beam of light travelling through it, and thus the overall magnification of the lens system.
In this simple optically compensated zoom lens, the afocal system consists of two positive (converging) lenses of equal focal length (lenses L1 and L3) with a negative (diverging) lens (L2) between them, with an absolute focal length less than half that of the positive lenses. Lens L3 is fixed, but lenses L1 and L2 can be moved axially in a particular non-linear relationship. This movement is usually performed by a complex arrangement of gears and cams in the lens housing, although some modern zoom lenses use computer-controlled servos to perform this positioning.
While the negative lens L2 moves from the front to the back of the lens, the lens L1 moves forward and then backward in a parabolic arc. In doing so, the overall angular magnification of the system varies, changing the effective focal length of the complete zoom lens. At each of the three points shown, the three-lens system is afocal (neither diverging or converging the light), and hence does not alter the position of the focal plane of the lens. Between these points, the system is not exactly afocal, but the variation in focal plane position can be small enough (about ±0.01mm in a well-designed lens) not to make a significant change to the sharpness of the image.
An important issue in zoom lens design is the correction of optical aberrations (such as chromatic aberration and, in particular, field curvature) across the whole operating range of the lens; this is considerably harder in a zoom lens than a fixed lens, which needs only to correct the aberrations for one focal length. This problem was a major reason for the slow uptake of zoom lenses, with early designs being considerably inferior to contemporary fixed lenses and usable only with a narrow range of f-numbers. Modern optical design techniques have enabled the construction of zoom lenses with good aberration correction over widely variable focal lengths and apertures.
Whereas lenses used in cinematography and video applications are required to maintain focus while the focal length is changed, there is no such requirement for still photography and for zoom lenses used as projection lenses. Since it is harder to construct a lens that does not change focus with the same image quality as one that does, the latter applications often use lenses that require refocusing once the focal length has changed (and thus strictly speaking are varifocal lenses, not zoom lenses). As most modern still cameras are autofocusing, this is not a problem.
Designers of zoom lenses with large zoom ratios often trade one or more aberrations for higher image sharpness. For example, a greater degree of barrel and pincushion distortion is tolerated in lenses that span the focal length range from wide angle to telephoto with a focal ratio of 10× or more than would be acceptable in a fixed focal length lens or a zoom lens with a lower ratio. Although modern design methods have been continually reducing this problem, barrel distortion of greater than one percent is common in these large-ratio lenses. Another price paid is that at the extreme telephoto setting of the lens the effective focal length changes significantly while the lens is focused on closer objects. The apparent focal length can more than halve while the lens is focused from infinity to medium close-up. To a lesser degree, this effect is also seen in fixed focal length lenses that move internal lens elements, rather than the entire lens, to effect changes in magnification.
Varifocal lens
Many so-called "zoom" lenses, particularly in the case of fixed-lens cameras, are actually varifocal lenses, which gives lens designers more flexibility in optical design trade-offs (focal length range, maximal aperture, size, weight, cost) than true parfocal zoom, and which is practical because of autofocus, and because the camera processor can move the lens to compensate for the change in the position of the focal plane while changing magnification ("zooming"), making operation essentially the same as a true parfocal zoom.[citation needed]
See also
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In optics, chromatic aberration (CA), also called chromatic distortion, color aberration, color fringing, or purple fringing, is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same point. It is caused by dispersion: the refractive index of the lens elements varies with the wavelength of light. The refractive index of most transparent materials decreases with increasing wavelength. Since the focal length of a lens depends on the refractive index, this variation in refractive index affects focusing. Since the focal length of the lens varies with the color of the light different colors of light are brought to focus at different distances from the lens or with different levels of magnification. Chromatic aberration manifests itself as "fringes" of color along boundaries that separate dark and bright parts of the image.
A camera lens is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capable of storing an image chemically or electronically.
A telephoto lens, also known as telelens, is a specific type of a long-focus lens used in photography and cinematography, in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. This is achieved by incorporating a special lens group known as a telephoto group that extends the light path to create a long-focus lens in a much shorter overall design. The angle of view and other effects of long-focus lenses are the same for telephoto lenses of the same specified focal length. Long-focal-length lenses are often informally referred to as telephoto lenses, although this is technically incorrect: a telephoto lens specifically incorporates the telephoto group.
An apochromat, or apochromatic lens (apo), is a photographic or other lens that has better correction of chromatic and spherical aberration than the much more common achromat lenses.
The EF lens mount is the standard lens mount on the Canon EOS family of SLR film and digital cameras. EF stands for "Electro-Focus": automatic focusing on EF lenses is handled by a dedicated electric motor built into the lens. Mechanically, it is a bayonet-style mount, and all communication between camera and lens takes place through electrical contacts; there are no mechanical levers or plungers. The mount was first introduced in 1987.
In film and photography, a prime lens is a fixed focal length photographic lens, typically with a maximum aperture from f2.8 to f1.2. The term can also mean the primary lens in a combination lens system. Confusion between these two meanings can occur without clarifying context. Alternate terms, such as primary focal length, fixed focal length, or FFL are sometimes used to avoid ambiguity.
Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life-size . By the original definition, a macro photograph is one in which the size of the subject on the negative or image sensor is life-size or greater. In some senses, however, it refers to a finished photograph of a subject that is greater than life-size.
A teleconverter is a secondary lens mounted between a camera and a photographic lens which enlarges the central part of an image obtained by the lens. For example, a 2× teleconverter for a 35 mm camera enlarges the central 12×18 mm part of an image to the size of 24×36 mm in the standard 35 mm film format.
A parfocal lens is a lens that stays in focus when magnification/focal length is changed. There is inevitably some amount of focus error, but too small to be considered significant.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 is a bridge digital camera by Panasonic from 2005. It is the successor of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20. The highest-resolution pictures it records is 8 megapixels.
A bridge camera is a type of camera that fills the niche between relatively simple point-and-shoot cameras and interchangeable-lens cameras such as mirrorless cameras and single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs). They are often comparable in size and weight to the smallest digital SLRs (DSLR), but lack interchangeable lenses, and almost all digital bridge cameras lack an optical viewfinder system. The phrase "bridge camera" has been in use at least since the 1980s, and continues to be used with digital cameras. The term was originally used to refer to film cameras which "bridged the gap" between point-and-shoot cameras and SLRs.
Lens speed is the maximum aperture diameter, or minimum f-number, of a photographic lens. A lens with a larger than average maximum aperture is called a "fast lens" because it can achieve the same exposure as an average lens with a faster shutter speed. Conversely, a smaller maximum aperture is "slow" because it delivers less light intensity and requires a slower (longer) shutter speed.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 is a superzoom bridge digital camera by Panasonic.
This article details lensesfor single-lens reflex and digital single-lens reflex cameras. The emphasis is on modern lenses for 35 mm film SLRs and for "full-frame" DSLRs with sensor sizes less than or equal to 35 mm.
A varifocal lens is a camera lens with variable focal length in which focus changes as focal length changes, as compared to a parfocal ("true") zoom lens, which remains in focus as the lens zooms. Many so-called "zoom" lenses, particularly in the case of fixed-lens cameras, are actually varifocal lenses, which give lens designers more flexibility in optical design trade-offs than parfocal zoom. These are practical because of autofocus, and because the camera processor can automatically adjust the lens to keep it in focus while changing focal length ("zooming") making it suitable for still photography where a change in magnification of the subject, as demonstrated below is not a problem. The change in the subject size is a significant problem in video and true parfocal designs are needed for higher quality video work. Varifocal lenses can be used for image display as well as capture, and Meta's Reality Labs has confirmed developing a varifocal display for virtual reality.
The design of photographic lenses for use in still or cine cameras is intended to produce a lens that yields the most acceptable rendition of the subject being photographed within a range of constraints that include cost, weight and materials. For many other optical devices such as telescopes, microscopes and theodolites where the visual image is observed but often not recorded the design can often be significantly simpler than is the case in a camera where every image is captured on film or image sensor and can be subject to detailed scrutiny at a later stage. Photographic lenses also include those used in enlargers and projectors.
In optics, an afocal system (a system without focus) is an optical system that produces no net convergence or divergence of the beam, i.e., has an infinite effective focal length. This type of system can be created with a pair of optical elements where the physical distance d between the elements is equal to the sum of each element's focal length fi (d = f1+f2). A simple example of an afocal optical system is an optical telescope imaging a star, the light entering the system is from the star at infinity (to the left) and the image it forms is at infinity (to the right), i.e., the collimated light is collimated by the afocal system. Although the system does not alter the divergence of a collimated beam, it does alter the width of the beam, increasing magnification. The magnification of such a telescope is given by
In photography, a long-focus lens is a camera lens which has a focal length that is longer than the diagonal measure of the film or sensor that receives its image. It is used to make distant objects appear magnified with magnification increasing as longer focal length lenses are used. A long-focus lens is one of three basic photographic lens types classified by relative focal length, the other two being a normal lens and a wide-angle lens. As with other types of camera lenses, the focal length is usually expressed in a millimeter value written on the lens, for example: a 500 mm lens. The most common type of long-focus lens is the telephoto lens, which incorporate a special lens group known as a telephoto group to make the physical length of the lens shorter than the focal length.
The invention of the camera in the early 19th century led to an array of lens designs intended for photography. The problems of photographic lens design, creating a lens for a task that would cover a large, flat image plane, were well known even before the invention of photography due to the development of lenses to work with the focal plane of the camera obscura.
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