Finding the focal length of a lens This is a calculator that will help you in finding the focal length of a photographic lens. The method is about focusing on one or more objects at different distances. Each time, you write down 3 measurements. Only one measurement could do. But the idea is that “averaging” several instances it…
Pinhole is a photographic technique that employs most of the times a home made camera in different degrees of improvisation and roughness. Matchboxes, shoeboxes and whatever boxes and containers are sort of starting point for those projects. The photographer bricoleur may also start from scratch by cutting cardboards and assembling his camera with adhesive tape. There are…
For generations, Chevalier family was in the scientific business producing specially optical instruments since 1765. Charles Chevalier (1804-1859) designed the first lenses that equipped photographic cameras, produced by Alphonse Gireaux, intended for daguerreotypes. This book was written by his son, Arthur Chevalier, and published in 1862. On top of the biography, it features several documents and…
Angle of View based on image circle and focal length Result is presented in degrees.
Nicéphore Nièpce biography published in 1867 written by Victor Fouque. Josef Maria Eder cites this book as the best source about life and work of the man who produced the very first photographic image in history. Available for download at Google Books
George Eastman Museum is a multifaceted institution challenged by its own superlative assets in different branches of image making. There you find a fantastic library with historic material like the “Pencil of Nature” from Henry Fox Talbot, complete Camera Work (1903–1917) edited and published by Alfred Stieglitz, Josef Maria Eder yearbooks and handbooks, photographers’ annotations, manuscripts,…
Front raise and horizon line For a given lens and given film or sensor format, this simulator shows how much it is possible a front raise and where the horizon line will end up in the final picture. Focusing is assumed to be at, or closer to, infinity, a frequently used condition for a landscape….
Tessar | Carl Zeiss Jena – 360 mm | f:6,3 | 1911 – The very first Tessar Tessar is probably the lens design most produced ever. Introduced in 1902, it was created by Paul Rudolph, from Carl Zeiss. The construction concept has found applications from large format down to Minox size. Lenses using Tessar’s design reached the order of millions of…
Refraction, Dispersion and Optical Glass for photographic lenses Refraction is a phenomenon of waves changing direction when passing from one medium to another. In a photographic lens that is the case when passing from air to glass and again from glass to air. It occurs also when passing from one type of glass to a different one. They…
Image circle from angle of view and focal length Result is presented with the same unit you used for focal length.
Use this calculator to find out what is the minimum image circle your lens must provide in order to cover a certain film format.
Although published in 1954, this is not a very hard to find book for online purchase. Organised by H.J.Walls and edited by Focal Press it is one of the few books, intended for amateurs, that talks more in depth about optical principles, the nature of light, sensitometry and characteristics of lenses and photographic equipment in general….