Roger Cuvillier (; July 2, 1922January 14, 2019) was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

and engineer, who invented the ''Pan Cinor'', the first optical compensation

zoom lens A zoom lens is a mechanical assembly of lens elements for which the focal length (and thus angle of view) can be varied, as opposed to a fixed-focal-length (FFL) lens (see prime lens). A true zoom lens, also called a parfocal lens, is one ...

Early life and education

Roger Cuvilier was born in Lille, in the

Nord Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televisi ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

of France. He studied at Centrale, graduating in

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in ...

, and at the École supérieure d'optique, graduating in

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

. He then went to work for SOM-Berthiot, and stayed there until retirement as head of that company’s main factory in Dijon.

The ''Pan Cinor''

Rule at SOM-Berthiot was for new recruits to tour the various departments of that company as trainees. This was a time of relative freedom, which he used to work on a problem a friend working for film industry, , had suggested: creating a single

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 ...

to replace the three ones used on movie cameras. Working on a device based on four lenses and two sliding tubes, Roger Cuvillier and his team developed the

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

of a

which was optically corrected, enabling its

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 ...

to be tripled without moving the

focal plane In Gaussian optics, the cardinal points consist of three pairs of points located on the optical axis of a rotationally symmetric, focal, optical system. These are the '' focal points'', the principal points, and the nodal points. For ''ideal'' ...

. It was patented on January 28, 1949, as French patent No.983.129. Sales started in 1950, under the name ''Pan Cinor'', "Cinor" being the brand name of SOM-Berthiot film lenses. The ''Pan Cinor'' was made in the SOM-Berthiot factory in Dijon, under the direction of Cuvillier, up to circa 1970.

References

1922 births 2019 deaths 20th-century French inventors 20th-century French engineers {{France-engineer-stub