List of lens designs

This list covers optical lens designs grouped by tasks or overall type. The field of optical lens designing has many variables including the function the lens or group of lenses have to perform, the limits of optical glass because of the index of refraction and dispersion properties, and design constraints including realistic lens element center and edge thicknesses, minimum and maximum air-spaces between lenses, maximum constraints on entrance and exit angles, and even cost. Some lenses listed are overall types with sub-designs (as noted).

Simple lens designs

Simple lenses are lenses consisting of a single element. Lenses in this section may overlap with lens designs in other sections, for example the Wollaston landscape lens is a single element and also a camera lens design.

Basic types

Designs

Wollaston landscape lens

Achromatic lens designs

There are many compound designs of achromatic lenses, designed to reduce color-related distortion (Chromatic aberration):

Camera lens designs

Camera lenses use a wide variety of designs because of the need to balance and trade off different requirements: angle of view (i.e. focal length in relation to the film or sensor size), maximum aperture, resolution, distortion, color correction, back focal distance, and cost.

Eyepiece designs

An eyepiece, a type of (usually a compound) lens that attaches to optical devices such as telescopes and microscopes, comes in many designs: