Hat Tip: Imaging Resource
Yes, I realize the story is from Friday. I was busy this weekend. (I'm also busy working during the week at a physically demanding job. That's part of the reason I don't post regularly right now.)
Now, back to the fluorite (calcium fluoride).
Fluorite is a naturally occurring mineral that is mined from the earth. It's optical properties all it to be used to create lenses that suffer lower chromatic aberrations than glass-based lenses suffer. This obviously improves image quality.
The problem?
The vast majority of high-quality fluorite is mined in China.
The country has what amounts to a monopoly on the mineral. Any company that wants to buy pure fluorite in large amounts has to do business with that country.
A Japanese company (Iwatani Corp.) is attempting to develop a method for creating fluorite with a high enough purity for use in optical glass.
Iwatani developed a process for recycling the perfluorocarbon (PFC) gas created during the manufacturing of semiconductors. PFC gas is considered a harmful pollutant (it destroys ozone). The end result of this process is fluorite. Unfortunately, the fluorite created by this process lacks the purity necessary for optical uses.
The company recently announced it had been successful in creating highly purified fluorite, but the processing cost is currently cost prohibitive. (The resulting product is twice that of mined fluorite.)
It is now working on ways to decrease production costs.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Major Advance in Flat Lenses From Harvard
Hat Tip: ePhotozine (Original story at Digital Trends.)
Harvard has created a prototype flat lens capable of successfully focusing multiple wavelengths of light at the same point. Harvard refers to the planar lens design as an Achromatic metasurface lens.
Planar is just fancy language for flat. Achromatic when applied to lenses means the light is not separated into its constituent colors. Metasurface refers to the surface of a metamaterial, which is a material that has a structure that produces results that can't be produced by natural materials. It's geek speak to describe how the lens works.
Ordinary lenses work by utilizing a curved surface to bend light. The drawback with this method is that different wavelengths of light (perceived as different colors) bend different amounts when passing through these lenses. This forces camera lens manufacturers to utilize multiple components to correct for this splitting of the different colors.
(The Harvard news page has an illustration if you want a visual representation.)
Having to use multiple lenses increases the complexity of lens design and increases the amount of glass needed when manufacturing camera lenses. This increases the cost and weight of quality lenses.
Instead of utilizing curved glass to bend light, the Harvard design utilizes a flat lens with "antennas" on its surface. These antennas are what make the lens a metamaterial. Light bends as a result of hitting the antenna.
The initial prototype introduced in 2012 was only capable of bending a single wavelength of light. The research team addressed this limitation by utilizing antennas of different sizes/shapes. Each shape or size targets a specific wavelengths of light. The lens is capable of producing a photographic image by targeting the wavelengths corresponding to red, green and blue as these are the colors recorded by digital sensors. (The other wavelengths are ignored by the sensor and don't need to be effected by the lens.)
The result is a single lens capable of replacing the set of three lenses used in current lens design.
At the very least, this would result in much lighter lenses. It might also result in less expensive lenses as less material needs to be used.
Judging from the images on the Harvard site, the antennas appear to run parallel across the face of the lens. This would result in light being bent in a single direction only. This would not necessarily prevent the technology from being used for camera lenses. The easiest fix would simply be using a second lens set perpendicular to the first.
The lenses would need to be set so the antennas parallel to the edges of the sensor to ensure light hit the sensor correctly. This is a consideration not required by traditional round lenses.
Harvard has created a prototype flat lens capable of successfully focusing multiple wavelengths of light at the same point. Harvard refers to the planar lens design as an Achromatic metasurface lens.
Planar is just fancy language for flat. Achromatic when applied to lenses means the light is not separated into its constituent colors. Metasurface refers to the surface of a metamaterial, which is a material that has a structure that produces results that can't be produced by natural materials. It's geek speak to describe how the lens works.
Ordinary lenses work by utilizing a curved surface to bend light. The drawback with this method is that different wavelengths of light (perceived as different colors) bend different amounts when passing through these lenses. This forces camera lens manufacturers to utilize multiple components to correct for this splitting of the different colors.
(The Harvard news page has an illustration if you want a visual representation.)
Having to use multiple lenses increases the complexity of lens design and increases the amount of glass needed when manufacturing camera lenses. This increases the cost and weight of quality lenses.
Instead of utilizing curved glass to bend light, the Harvard design utilizes a flat lens with "antennas" on its surface. These antennas are what make the lens a metamaterial. Light bends as a result of hitting the antenna.
The initial prototype introduced in 2012 was only capable of bending a single wavelength of light. The research team addressed this limitation by utilizing antennas of different sizes/shapes. Each shape or size targets a specific wavelengths of light. The lens is capable of producing a photographic image by targeting the wavelengths corresponding to red, green and blue as these are the colors recorded by digital sensors. (The other wavelengths are ignored by the sensor and don't need to be effected by the lens.)
The result is a single lens capable of replacing the set of three lenses used in current lens design.
At the very least, this would result in much lighter lenses. It might also result in less expensive lenses as less material needs to be used.
Judging from the images on the Harvard site, the antennas appear to run parallel across the face of the lens. This would result in light being bent in a single direction only. This would not necessarily prevent the technology from being used for camera lenses. The easiest fix would simply be using a second lens set perpendicular to the first.
The lenses would need to be set so the antennas parallel to the edges of the sensor to ensure light hit the sensor correctly. This is a consideration not required by traditional round lenses.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Chance to Win $1,000 B&H Gift Card
PetaPixel is giving away a $1,000 B&H gift card.
All you have to do to enter the contest is follow the above link and leave a comment about what you would purchase with the card on the contest page.
Winner will be chosen randomly from those that comment.
1 comment per reader only. The contest is open to non-U.S. residents.
$1,000 is enough to purchase a decent digital camera kit and accessories.
All you have to do to enter the contest is follow the above link and leave a comment about what you would purchase with the card on the contest page.
Winner will be chosen randomly from those that comment.
1 comment per reader only. The contest is open to non-U.S. residents.
$1,000 is enough to purchase a decent digital camera kit and accessories.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Instagram Allowing More Intrusive Ads
Hat Tip: Imaging Resource
The Facebook owned photo sharing site recently announced they would now allow "carousel" ads with links. (Note on link, Ad Age limits the number of articles you can read each month if not a subscriber. It shouldn't be an issue for most people.)
"Carousel" ads are those ads with revolving images. Instagram will allow up to four photos per ad as well as "learn more" links.
That four ads to start with. I suspect that number is likely to increase.
Advertising revenue is how many web sites earn their revenues. The sites are always looking for ways to increase those revenues but there is a limit on the number of ads they can place on a page before they start antagonizing visitors.
Offering the option to upgrade ads is another way to increase ad revenue. Presumably these carousel ads will cost advertisers more than static ads.
The potential drawback for Instagram is that these type of ads are more intrusive than static ads. The constant motion can get annoying.
They also increase the processing demand on the visitor's computer. This can be problematic for individuals using older computers. Their computers may simply not be up to the increased demand, especially if a page includes multiple carousel ads.
The increase in ad revenue that comes from these carousel ads could be offset by losing users that get annoyed at the ads or just can't use the site due to increased performance demands.
They could also find more users relying on ad-blocking software when visiting the site.
The Facebook owned photo sharing site recently announced they would now allow "carousel" ads with links. (Note on link, Ad Age limits the number of articles you can read each month if not a subscriber. It shouldn't be an issue for most people.)
"Carousel" ads are those ads with revolving images. Instagram will allow up to four photos per ad as well as "learn more" links.
That four ads to start with. I suspect that number is likely to increase.
Advertising revenue is how many web sites earn their revenues. The sites are always looking for ways to increase those revenues but there is a limit on the number of ads they can place on a page before they start antagonizing visitors.
Offering the option to upgrade ads is another way to increase ad revenue. Presumably these carousel ads will cost advertisers more than static ads.
The potential drawback for Instagram is that these type of ads are more intrusive than static ads. The constant motion can get annoying.
They also increase the processing demand on the visitor's computer. This can be problematic for individuals using older computers. Their computers may simply not be up to the increased demand, especially if a page includes multiple carousel ads.
The increase in ad revenue that comes from these carousel ads could be offset by losing users that get annoyed at the ads or just can't use the site due to increased performance demands.
They could also find more users relying on ad-blocking software when visiting the site.
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