Large aperture imaging optical system
OwnerJ. Brian Caldwellinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Large aperture optical systems that are extremely well corrected over a large flat field and over a large spectral range are disclosed. Breathing and aberration variation during focusing are optionally controlled by moving at least two groups of lens elements independently. Aberration correction in general is aided by allowing the working distance to become short relative to the format diagonal. Field curvature is largely corrected by a steeply curved concave surface relatively close to the image plane. This allows the main collective elements to be made of low-index anomalous dispersion materials in order to correct secondary spectrum. In wide-angle example embodiments, distortion may be controlled with an aspheric surface near the front of the lens.
Claims35
A large-aperture imaging optical system for forming an image of an object, comprising:
- a) a primary lens group PG having a focal length FG comprising in order from the object to the image:
- i) a front negative-powered lens sub-group P1 having a focal length F1;
- ii) a positive-powered lens sub-group P2 having a focal length F2;
- iii) a negative-powered lens sub-group P3 having a focal length F3;
- and
- b) wherein the primary lens group PG contains a surface SC that is concave toward the image, the marginal ray height at surface SC being less than 0.8 times the maximum marginal ray height at any lens surface within PG.
A large-aperture imaging optical system for forming an image of an object, comprising:
- a) a primary lens group PG having a focal length FG comprising in order from the object to the image:
- i) a front negative-powered lens sub-group P1 having a focal length F1;
- ii) a positive-powered lens sub-group P2 having a focal length F2;
- iii) a negative-powered lens sub-group P3 having a focal length F3;
- and
- iv) a lens sub-group P4 having a focal length F4 that can be either negatively or positively powered;
- and
- b) wherein the primary lens group PG contains a surface SC that is concave toward the image, the marginal ray height at surface SC being less than 0.85 times the maximum marginal ray height at any lens surface within PG.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.