Special Purpose Optics

In photography, as with other human pursuits, there seems to be a constant supply of difficult problems or special needs to cope with. When the problems or needs involve optical equipment, the answer sometimes lies in just using regular lenses in a new way by adding an appropriate accessory or two. However, a problem may be stubborn enough to require a special-purpose lens for its solution. Manufacturers are ingenious in their ability to devise clever optics to meet specific needs. Fortunately, such lenses often have capabilities far beyond their primary purpose, providing the means for experimental and creative photography as well.

Special purpose lenses have emerged to fill various photographic needs. But because they don’t seem to fit neatly into the commonly recognized lens families, they haven’t been mentioned in previous chapters. In many ways they are similar to more ordinary optics, but each has some unusual feature that sets it apart. Some of these lesnes, like the zoom, may proliferate and become so popular that in the future they will tend to establish large, distinct families of their own.
 

Photography is a dynamic, fast growing hobby and profession. It is forever searching out and finding more effective methods of capturing meaningful images. One of the ways to accomplish this is to create new types of lenses to overcome stubborn photographic problems. Most of us will never seek the help of these special purpose tools, but it is comforting to know something about them in case a need ever arises.

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More about Special Purpose lenses

- Portraits Lens
- Tips on using Portraits Lens

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