lenses

German optics are famed for their precision engineering and beautiful lens coating that can affect the sharpness of pictures. But have you ever wondered how the insides of a Leica or Carl Zeiss lens look?

At the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin in Germany, there is a side exhibit of antique German cameras. But what makes these pieces so intriguing is that some of these items have been sawn lengthwise in half to show the all nitty-gritty--small but important components that make the handling and operation of the optics so smooth. Think of it as similar to the Body Worlds showcase, except … Read more

Designer Jian Guan is a self-professed fan of distortion caused by fisheye lenses. To him, pictures taken with these optics show more of the environment and can be useful for 3D rendering. This is probably why he formulated the Fun Camera.

Shaped like a magnifying glass, the shooter houses a 16-millimeter lens and has a mirror so you can take distorted self-portraits. While it does have its entertainment value, we see some practical use for it: Real estate agents can use the Fun Camera and snap a shot that shows much more view of the room, though the distorted walls … Read more

When Panasonic announced its first interchangeable-lens camera, the Lumix DMC-G1, it said the camera would cost less than $800. Today it's official: $799.95 with the 14-45mm f3.5-5.6 (28-90mm equivalent) lens.

That price puts it in direct competition with inexpensive dSLR models like the Nikon D60 and Canon Rebel XS; it's a bit smaller compared to those, but lacks an optical viewfinder, which is a significant disadvantage. And it's significantly more expensive than more compact, fixed-lens enthusiast competitors like Panasonic's own LX3 and the Canon PowerShot G10. As yet, performance is a big unknown.… Read more

Phase One is fleshing out its transformation from a maker of high-end image sensors for others' cameras into a maker of full-on cameras.

At the Photokina camera show in Germany, the company announced "successful alliances" with Leica Camera, Mamiya, and Hartblei to bring third-party lenses to its Phase One 645 camera system, and it said it will begin selling several lenses of its own by the end of the year. Those lens models are a 28mm f4.5, a 45mm f2.8, an 80mm f2.8, a 120mm f4.0, a 150mm f2.8, and a 75-150mm f4.… Read more

Lensbaby's selective-focus lenses thus far have brought a seat-of-the-pants, analog feel to the electronic and digital world that photography has become. But a new model announced Tuesday has a more traditional interface for those who weren't happy with the company's earlier approach of squeezing and flexing the lens until the image looks about right.

For the uninitiated, the company's approach deserves a little explanation here. Lensbaby lenses let people focus tightly on a selected spot; the rest of the view quickly recedes into blurriness. It's a bit gimmicky, but it gives a different look than … Read more

Nikon announced an update to its 50mm f/1.4 lens on Monday, a relatively high-speed mainstay set to go on sale for $440 in December.

The new lens, called the AF-S Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G, has less chromatic aberration and internal flare than its predecessor, Nikon said. It's also got a silent wave motor for quiet, speedy autofocus, a close-focus distance of about 18 inches, and nine rounded aperture blades for a smoother look, called bokeh, in out-of-focus regions.

Lenses with a fixed 50mm focal length are very common, though not as much as during the era … Read more

The bits have barely dried on the press release for Olympus and Panasonic's Micro Four Thirds standard for interchangeable lens point-and-shoot cameras and a competing announcement has already emerged from an unexpected source: Samsung. In an interview with the U.K.'s Amateur Photographer magazine, Samsung Techwin Executive Vice President Byung Woo Lee revealed that company's plans for a similar standard based on APS-C-size sensors--albeit not until 2009.

I suppose it's not that surprising that the announcement comes from Samsung. It certainly wasn't going to come from any Canon- or Nikon-driven initiative, since both of those … Read more

How badly do people want interchangeable lenses on compact cameras? We're going to find out soon enough: Panasonic and Olympus have announced a variation on their Four Thirds camera system designed specifically for non-SLR cameras.

On one hand, this will facilitate interchangeable lens cameras more compact than would be possible in a dSLR. By jettisoning the mirror box and through-the-lens optical viewfinder, the two companies hope to make thinner and lighter cameras--thinner than the Olympus E-420, the smallest dSLR on the market. The new lens specification allows the lens to sit about 50 percent closer to the sensor and … Read more

Most folks think of a photo as a two-dimensional representation of a scene. Stanford University researchers, however, have created an image sensor that also can judge the distance of subjects within a snapshot.

To accomplish the feat, Keith Fife and his colleagues have developed technology called a multi-aperture image sensor that sees things differently than the light detectors used in ordinary digital cameras.

Instead of devoting the entire sensor for one big representation of the image, Fife's 3-megapixel sensor prototype breaks the scene up into many small, slightly overlapping 16x16-pixel patches called subarrays. Each subarray has its own lens … Read more