A blog about optical design, build, test and more.
Nearly 40 Years of MTF and Going Strong
Let’s take a trip down memory lane. In the mid-1990s when I was a young engineer at Optikos Corporation, I vividly remember CEO Stephen Fantone imploring my boss, Peter Carellas, to get back to work on a project Steve called, “that four-letter word!” The word in question was “book” and the book Peter was working […]
How Hard Can It Be to Select A Lens for A Camera System?
At first glance selecting a lens for a camera system may seem straightforward, but it can be a deceptively difficult task. We often find that customers have already chosen a sensor and they want to find the most appropriate lens for their application. They will have a field of view requirement and the field of […]
Why Measure Stray Light?
Stray light in imaging systems is known by many terms—veiling glare, ghost image, lens flare, and image glare, just to name a few. In its most general sense, “stray light” refers to any unwanted light that ends up in the image formed by a lens. For most of us, our exposure to stray light probably comes from […]
Virtual Reality Eyepieces – Do Microdisplays Lead to Smaller Headsets?
In virtual reality (VR) systems, we often talk about “immersion” as a primary goal for user experience. From the perspective of the optical designer, an immersive VR headset will produce a field of view (FOV) that rivals a person’s natural field of vision. In practice, we strike a balance between our 200° binocular visual field […]
An Intimate (and Fun) Conversation with a Nobel Prize Laureate
On May 21st, the New England Section of The Optical Society (NES/OSA) had the good fortune to feature a conversation with Dr. Donna Strickland, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018 for her work in creating Chirped Pulse Amplification–ultrashort high-intensity lasers that have become essential in laser fusion research, laser eye surgery, and […]