James G. Baker

Photographic optical systems with nonrotational aspheric surfaces

Sections of nonrotational aspheric surfaces can be useful in a variety of optical situations. In several examples, image-forming objectives, as for photographic or electronic camera products, are described in which suitably located asymmetric pairs of refractive surfaces are devised, such that relative rotation about a displaced axis of one with respect to the other can be used to produce a focusing effect that is satisfactory for imaging purposes over reasonable fields of view and for practicable apertures and achromatic corrections. Taylor expansions about assignable reference points in any given surface of a sequence, together with suitable coordinate systems, can be employed to relate performance to shape parameters.