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Re: [OM] Why is the 50mm the brightest lens?

Subject: Re: [OM] Why is the 50mm the brightest lens?
From: HI100@xxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2001 00:55:18 EDT
DanielMitchell@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

<< why isn't the 16mm f0.6? Is it some sort of
 coincidence that 50mm happens to match up with the least amount of glass and
 that's why it's the "standard" lens? 
>>

An additional confounding issue here is the fact that an SLR needs to have 
retrofocus lenses when the focal length gets short enough that the lens would 
sit where the mirror is with a non-retro design. So RF cameras have quite 
small wide angle lenses compared to an SLR. The Zeiss Hologon camera lens 
(15mm ) is much smaller than say the equivalent rectilinear Nikon or Sigma 
15mm lens for an SLR. When the Hologon first came out it was thought that a 
rectilinear SLR lens of that focal length could not be made. 

As far as fast glass under F1.0 is concerned, microscopes objectives often 
achieve numbers well under 1.0 ( as low as F 0.5? I think) when they use oil 
immersion objectives. The immersion objective gives a much larger relative 
refractive index between the glass and the oil. 

So if we could invent some new glass with much higher refractive index we 
might get faster lenses?

For monochromatic light where the lens does not suffer chromatic abberation, 
going to a faster lens improves resolution greatly since the lens can then be 
difffraction limited  even wide open. This is exactly what is done in the 
semiconductor industry with mainly Nikon process lenses for 
photo-lithographic production of masks for semiconductor chips. These lenses 
are ~ F0.8 I believe, and used to be corrected at two wavelengths. One 
visible for allowing checking of focussing manually and another in the UV for 
actual exposure to minimize diffraction.  

                  Regards,
                 Tim Hughes
                >>Hi100@xxxxxxx<<

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