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 In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is a dimensionless number that gives the indication of the light bending ability of that medium. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or ...

and

dispersion Dispersion may refer to: Economics and finance *Dispersion (finance), a measure for the statistical distribution of portfolio returns *Price dispersion, a variation in prices across sellers of the same item *Wage dispersion, the amount of variatio ...

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 *

Biconcave lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...

Biconvex lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...

* Convex-concave lens * Plano concave lens * Plano convex lens *

Meniscus lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements'') ...

;Designs * Wollaston landscape lens

Achromatic lens designs

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

Chromatic aberration In optics, chromatic aberration (CA), also called chromatic distortion and spherochromatism, is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same point. It is caused by dispersion: the refractive index of the lens elements varies with the wave ...

): * Achromatic doublet (''type'') ** Littrow doublet ** Fraunhofer doublet ** Clark doublet ** Oil-spaced doublet ** Steinheil doublet **

Apochromatic doublet An apochromat, or apochromatic lens (apo), is a photographic or other lens that has better correction of chromatic and spherical aberration than the much more common achromat lenses. Explanation Chromatic aberration is the phenomenon of different ...

* Dialyte lens *

Superachromat The superachromat or superachromatic lens was first conceived and developed by Maximilian Herzberger as the ultimate well-corrected lens. The color shift curve of a superachromat is a quartic, meaning that in theory four separate colors can be b ...

Camera lens designs

Camera lens A camera lens (also known as photographic lens or photographic objective) is an optical lens or assembly of lenses used in conjunction with a camera body and mechanism to make images of objects either on photographic film or on other media capab ...

es use a wide variety of designs because of the need to balance and trade off different requirements:

angle of view The angle of view is the decisive variable for the visual perception of the size or projection of the size of an object. Angle of view and perception of size The perceived size of an object depends on the size of the image projected onto the ...

(i.e.

focal length The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the inverse of the system's optical power. A positive focal length indicates that a system converges light, while a negative foca ...

in relation to the film or sensor size), maximum

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

, resolution, distortion, color correction,

back focal distance The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the inverse of the system's optical power. A positive focal length indicates that a system converges light, while a negative foca ...

, and cost. *

Celor lens A Celor lens (also known as a symmetric dialyte) is a highly corrected lens of the Dialyt type, designed for process photography, involving reproduction at or near 1:1 scale. It was developed in 1898 by Emil von Hoegh, an optical designer working ...

* Chevalier lens *

Cooke Triplet The Cooke triplet is a photographic lens designed and patented (patent number GB 22,607) in 1893 by Dennis Taylor who was employed as chief engineer by T. Cooke & Sons of York. It was the first lens system that allowed elimination of most of th ...

Double-Gauss lens The double Gauss lens is a compound lens used mostly in camera lenses that reduces optical aberrations over a large focal plane. Design The double Gauss lens consists of two back-to-back Gauss lenses (a design with a positive meniscus lens on t ...

Frazier lens The Frazier lens is a special camera lens designed by Australian photographer Jim Frazier. The Frazier lens provides an appearance of a massive depth of field, allowing the foreground and background of an image to be in focus. Frazier's lens ...

* Fresnel lens *

Gauss lens The Gauss lens is a compound achromatic lens that uses two uncemented elements; in its most basic form, a positive meniscus lens on the object side and a negative meniscus lens on the image side. It was first proposed in 1817 by the mathematician ...

* Inverted telephoto (retrofocus) lens * Petzval lens *

Plasmat lens The Plasmat lens is a widely used and long-established lens type invented by Paul Rudolph in 1918, especially common in large-format photography. It provides high correction of aberrations with a moderate maximum aperture (e.g. ). It is a specif ...

Telephoto lens A telephoto lens, in photography and cinematography, is a specific type of a long-focus lens in which the physical length of the lens is shorter than the focal length. This is achieved by incorporating a special lens group known as a ''telephoto ...

* Tessar lens * Wollaston landscape lens

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: * Convex *

Galilean Generically, a Galilean (; he, גלילי; grc, Γαλιλαίων; la, Galilaeos) is an inhabitant of Galilee, a region of Israel surrounding the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret). The New Testament notes that the Apostle Peter's accent gave him a ...

Huygens Huygens (also Huijgens, Huigens, Huijgen/Huygen, or Huigen) is a Dutch patronymic surname, meaning "son of Hugo". Most references to "Huygens" are to the polymath Christiaan Huygens. Notable people with the surname include: * Jan Huygen (1563– ...

Ramsden Ramsden may refer to: ;Places: *Ramsden, Orpington, England *Ramsden, Oxfordshire, England, a village and civil parish *Ramsden, Worcestershire, England, a hamlet *Ramsden Park, Toronto, Canada *Ramsden (crater), on the Moon *8001 Ramsden, an aste ...

* Kellner or "Achromat" * Plössl or "Symmetrical" * Orthoscopic or "Abbe" *

Monocentric The monocentric chromosome is a chromosome that has only one centromere in a chromosome and forms a narrow constriction. Monocentric centromeres are the most common structure on highly repetitive DNA in plants and animals. Structure Monocent ...

* Erfle *

König König (; ) is the German word for "king". In German and other languages applying the umlaut, the transliterations ''Koenig'' and ''Kœnig'', when referring to a surname, also occur. As a surname in English, the use of ''Koenig'' is usual, and som ...

* RKE *

Nagler Nagler is a surname. In the Polish language, it has an archaic feminine form, Naglerowa, used as a surname by marriage. Notable people with the surname include: *Alfons Nagler (born 1893), German flying ace *Cathryn Nagler, American immunologist * ...

Lens designs List {{DEFAULTSORT:Lens designs