LensVIEW^TM is a CD-ROM database of lens design examples which is dedicated to making lens design data more accessible to the optical designer or engineer. LensVIEW currently has complete information on more than 32,000 individual lens designs from the US patent literature, the Japanese patent literature, as well as The Zeiss Index of Photographic Lenses and is updated yearly. LensVIEW design data can be searched using 57 different optical and bibliographic parameters. A special LensVIEW Classification System having 110 different categories is also included to make searching easier. Data for each design can be viewed in a series of user-selectable windows. There are separate windows for navigation, bibliographic data, complete inventor data, U.S. and international classification data, optical data, optical prescription, LensVIEW classification, lens layout drawings, and longitudinal aberration curves. LensVIEW includes translators to create lens files which can be read by several different optical design programs, including ACCOS, CODEV, OSLO, SIGMA and ZEMAX
 
 

Another difficulty is that many published designs omit the field of view, and some omit the f-number. In these cases, reasonable values are provided as a convenience. These values are based on ray tracing analysis and on comparison with similar lenses for which field and/or aperture data are provided. Many patent designs also omit the location of the aperture stop. In most cases it is fairly easy to determine the appropriate air space in which to locate the stop, but in some cases, such as telephoto lenses and zoom lenses, a trial and error approach based on ray tracing is required. In many cases the stop location is indicated by a drawing but is not specified exactly in the prescription. All designs in LensVIEW are assigned an exact stop position which is either given explicitly in the patent example or is a reasonable value derived from a combination of ray tracing analysis and common sense.

Still another difficulty is that there are often typographical errors in the optical prescriptions found in the patent literature. Most of these are sign errors or a misplaced decimal point. Fortunately, these types of errors are easy to find and correct because they tend to have a major impact on the focal length of the system. Incorrect digits have a varying degree of impact on the performance of the design depending on where the digit is located. A great deal of effort has been spent on correcting these errors to make the designs in LensVIEW as useful as possible.

Afocal systems cannot be conveniently scaled according to focal length, but are instead scaled so that the exit pupil has a diameter of 10. In order to compute aberration curves and other parameters which can be compared with those computed for non-afocal systems, a paraxial lens having a focal length of 100 is placed at the exit pupil of the scaled afocal systems in LensVIEW. In a few cases there is a departure from afocality which is pronounced enough to require a paraxial lens with a shorter focal length, and in these cases a paraxial lens having a focal length of either 50, 25 or 10 is used as required.

1) U.S. Patents: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Washington, DC 20231 USA, USPTO Phone: (800) PTO-9199, WebSite: http://www.uspto.gov In order for a U.S. patent to be granted, the inventor must state at least one claim as to how the patent differs from the ‘prior art’. In order to defend this claim, optical design patents usually include several lens design examples which illustrate the concept of the claim(s). In rare cases, patents can contain more than 50 lens design examples. For each patent included in LensVIEW, the optical prescription for every example in that patent is also included. The user of LensVIEW is responsible for determining if using a patent example will infringe on an active patent’s claim(s).

2) Japanese Patents: Patent Information Division, General Administration Department, Patent Office, 3-4-3, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100, Japan. WebSite: http://www.jpo-miti.go.jp Please note that bibliographic data for the Japanese patent lens designs included in LensVIEW are currently limited to patent number and issue date, application number and filing date, as well as the patent assignee. Future updates to LensVIEW will increase this bibliographic information. However, Japanese patent examples currently in LensVIEW contain complete optical prescriptions and can be conveniently browsed and searched on over 30 optical parameters and over 100 different LensVIEW classification categories. Additionally, all Japanese lens designs are fully exportable to the standard optical design file formats noted previously.

3) Zeiss Index: W.W. Merté, The Zeiss Index of Photographic Lenses (Volume 1), September 1950, translated from the German: April 1949. Originally published by THE CENTRAL AIR DOCUMENTS OFFICE (Army-Navy-Air Force), Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH (note: this office is now non-existent). A compilation of lens formulas obtained from the Zeiss Works. In general, the list of objectives has been arranged by types, such as Tessar, Cooke, Hektor, …etc. Each type of objective is described by pertinent descriptive information, as well as assigned EFL, FOV and F/# information from Merté. All this information taken directly from the Zeiss Index is presented and can be searched on as BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA. OPTICAL DATA (EFL, EPD ..etc.) may not coincide exactly with Merté’s chosen values due to the default LensVIEW scaling and other considerations (see sections 2.1 and 2.2).

This is one of the earliest references on photographic optics, and it provides optical prescriptions and detailed drawings of several of the more interesting designs in use during the mid-19th century, including the original Petzval portrait lens, the Harrison Globe lens and the Dallmeyer triplet. Also included is a fascinating section on solar enlargers. In English, translated from French.

Handbuch der Angewandten Optik is primarily a manual of trigonometrical ray tracing and aberration calculation, but volume 2 contains a chapter which provides optical prescriptions for 45 different achromatic doublet objectives corrected for spherical aberration. In English, translated from German.

This outstanding book was published at the end of a very productive decade of optical design, and it gives optical prescriptions and performance data for 48 different classic objectives ranging from Wallaston’s meniscus landscape lens to two different versions of the Cooke triplet to a very modern looking double Gauss lens designed by Paul Rudolph. Unfortunately, most of the prescriptions omit glass dispersion information, listing only nD. In German.

A great deal of Applied Optics and Optical Design is devoted to ray tracing and aberration calculation, but there are also many detailed design examples. Conrady emphasizes the design process, which is typically discussed in great detail, rather than simply cataloging a number of well-corrected optical designs. The designs covered include achromatic doublets, eyepieces, several types of microscope objectives, and more than 15 different types of photographic objectives. In English.

Das Photographische Objectiv gives optical prescriptions and performance data for 130 different lens designs found mainly in German, European, and U.S. patents dating from the 1890’s through the 1920’s. In German.

The Zeiss Index is a unique and extremely interesting publication of a card index of more than 1500 lens designs maintained by of the Carl Zeiss Company from the turn of the century up to the end of World War II. The Central Air Documents Office publication is a reproduction of photostatic copies of the original handwritten cards, and many of these copies are illegible. In addition, about 250 of the original cards were lost before copies could be made. Despite this, more than 1000 designs are clear enough to be of use to lens designers. Although some of the designs are derived from patent data, most appear to be the actual designs used by Zeiss for lens manufacture. The extensive table of contents is in English, and the handwritten cards are in German.

Das Photographische Objektiv is a general text on photographic optics and optical aberrations which includes an appendix giving optical prescriptions and third-order aberration coefficients for 36 different lens designs ranging from 19th and early 20th century classics to the state-of-the-art in the early 1950’s. Also included is an interesting chapter on lens testing. In German.

This well known reference contains a printed database of approximately 300 lens designs published in U.S. patents from 1935 through 1963. Each design includes a lens layout, performance data, and an optical prescription. Also included in addition to this database is a nearly complete listing of all U.S. and British patents published during that same period which have numerical lens design examples. In English.

Modern Optical Engineering is an excellent general text on optical engineering and lens design, and it includes optical prescriptions and performance data for more than a dozen specific designs. In English.

This is a nearly complete list of all U.S. patents published between 1909 and 1970 which contain numerical lens design examples. The list is sorted by patent number, first inventor, (Bird) Classification Code, total system speed, field dimension, magnification, and zoom range. No lens drawings, performance data, or prescriptions are provided, but the list is useful in compiling a patent file. In English.

Lens Design Fundamentals is a classic text on lens design in the tradition of Conrady’s Applied Optics and Optical Design. As in Conrady’s book, the emphasis is on the design process rather than the end result. Several dozen designs are presented, including photographic objectives, reflective systems, and eyepieces. In English.

Telescope Optics gives optical prescriptions and performance data for more than 80 telescope and eyepiece designs. Since this book is intended primarily for amateur astronomers, all of the telescope designs have been scaled to an entrance pupil diameter of 200mm. Performance data is provided in the form of spot diagrams, which are quite effective in providing a visual comparison of different design forms. In English.

Lens Design gives optical prescriptions, lens layouts and MTF data on more than 80 lens designs. Although patents and literature articles are given as references, most of the lenses appear to be original designs by Milton Laikin. This book is an excellent general text and reference book for practicing lens designers. In English.

This recent book gives optical prescriptions and performance data for nearly 300 designs from patents and other sources. In addition to the longitudinal aberration plots which are also provided by von Rohr, Merté, and Cox, this reference also includes transverse ray aberrations. Many of these designs, such as microscope objectives, mirror systems, laser scanning lenses, zoom lenses, and infrared lenses are for applications which were ignored by the earlier references listed above, or else simply did not exist. In addition to design data, Modern Lens Design has some very good information on the subject of computer aided lens design. Like Laikin’s Lens Design, this is an excellent general text and reference book for practicing lens designers. In English.

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