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Article on Zooms - Popular Science - December 1981
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:57 pm    Post subject: Article on Zooms - Popular Science - December 1981 Reply with quote
Short interesting article from Popular Science giving a high level look into the state of optical design for zoom lenses in 1981.

http://books.google.com/books?id=XBZpIPL1lloC&lpg=PA96&pg=PA96#v=onepage&q&f=true



PostPosted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 10:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Interesting.
I was quite excited by the article on the new ZX81 personal computer that came with - wait for it - 1K of memory.
But there's more - it is expandable to 16K ..... WOW!
Can't wait to get one
OH


PostPosted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 10:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Oldhand wrote:
Interesting.
I was quite excited by the article on the new ZX81 personal computer that came with - wait for it - 1K of memory.
But there's more - it is expandable to 16K ..... WOW!
Can't wait to get one
OH


LOL. In the States they branded that one as the "Timex Sinclair 1000" and I had one. It hooked up to the t.v. When I was 12 I would spend hours typing programs from magazines on the little membrane keyboard. Unfortunately the adapter didn't have surge protection and every time my grandparents hit the switch on their stairlift, I would lose 4 hours of work.

The article earlier in that issue on "The Exciting New World of Electronic Photography" is also really fascinating to read.

http://books.google.com/books?id=XBZpIPL1lloC&lpg=PA87&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q&f=true


PostPosted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 10:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I liked the 1981 PP article but its predictions are very funny: Laughing

"It's our belief that plastic-and-glass hybrids, particularly employing aspheric elements, are the way of the future."

"Within five years, all your fixed-focal-length lenses, except for teles and superwides, are going to be collector's items." Mr. Green

"The development of extraordinary new materials and technologies may make obsolete the glasses and technologies that go into today's fine lenses." Rolling Eyes

"Diaphragms might be composed of liquid crystals, which darken with a low voltage current."

Moral of the history: "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."


PostPosted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 11:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Gerald wrote:
I liked the 1981 PP article but its predictions are very funny: Laughing

"It's our belief that plastic-and-glass hybrids, particularly employing aspheric elements, are the way of the future."

"Within five years, all your fixed-focal-length lenses, except for teles and superwides, are going to be collector's items." Mr. Green

"The development of extraordinary new materials and technologies may make obsolete the glasses and technologies that go into today's fine lenses." Rolling Eyes

"Diaphragms might be composed of liquid crystals, which darken with a low voltage current."

Moral of the history: "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."


I agree completely, it's so of the time which is why I shared it. If the self darkening glass that will replace my aperture blades works as well as those eyeglasses that darken in sunlight, well, I better get a bigger flash.


PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 5:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Oldhand wrote:
Interesting.
I was quite excited by the article on the new ZX81 personal computer that came with - wait for it - 1K of memory.
But there's more - it is expandable to 16K ..... WOW!..


Yeah, this was my first personal computer - or more exactly my brothers. He bought the 16kb extension and the thermo printer with the computer, so we had much memory - back then.

There is also the Sony Mavica, one of the first "Digital" cameras in that magazin.

Gerald wrote:
...
"Within five years, all your fixed-focal-length lenses, except for teles and superwides, are going to be collector's items." Mr. Green ..


This said die vice president of Kiron. 5 years later Kiron seems no longer selling photographic (consumer) lenses Smile
But normal and wideangle prime lenses are still sold. But yes, shorter primes where a kind of unpopular ~1990.

At least the plastic-and-glass hybrids are common today for aspheric lenses.
And the prediction that aspherics and plastics make further lenses cheaper is so true - the reason why I love the older lenses Smile


PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 7:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Gerald wrote:
I liked the 1981 PP article but its predictions are very funny: Laughing

"It's our belief that plastic-and-glass hybrids, particularly employing aspheric elements, are the way of the future."

"Within five years, all your fixed-focal-length lenses, except for teles and superwides, are going to be collector's items." Mr. Green

"The development of extraordinary new materials and technologies may make obsolete the glasses and technologies that go into today's fine lenses." Rolling Eyes

"Diaphragms might be composed of liquid crystals, which darken with a low voltage current."

Moral of the history: "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."


Well, ZoneV makes a good point, doesn't he? Really, . . . the first prediction wasn't far off the mark - many, if not most, of the APS film cameras had exactly that sort of hybrid lens. And as for the second, there was indeed a huge shift in consumer buying from fixed focal lengths to zooms. And for the third prediction, many of the glasses used back then (especially the so-called exotic ones) have been replaced by more 'environmentally friendly' types. And lens manufacturers now regularly use techniques for producing aspheric surfaces at less than stratospheric costs. And maybe we've still not quite reached the fourth one !


PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 9:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
scsambrook wrote:
... And for the third prediction, many of the glasses used back then (especially the so-called exotic ones) have been replaced by more 'environmentally friendly' types...


Oh, yes, thats true, too.
I attended to a optic and glass manufacturer workshop on these laws (in Europe: RoHS). There are exeptions for example the optical industry, and they try to get those prologend. For lenses with small production numbers it would be a big problem to start a redesign with RoHS compatible kinds of optical glass.
In the current Edmund Optics programm there are still few not RoHS compliant lenses.


PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 4:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
kenetik wrote:
Gerald wrote:
I liked the 1981 PP article but its predictions are very funny: Laughing

"It's our belief that plastic-and-glass hybrids, particularly employing aspheric elements, are the way of the future."

"Within five years, all your fixed-focal-length lenses, except for teles and superwides, are going to be collector's items." Mr. Green

"The development of extraordinary new materials and technologies may make obsolete the glasses and technologies that go into today's fine lenses." Rolling Eyes

"Diaphragms might be composed of liquid crystals, which darken with a low voltage current."

Moral of the history: "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."


I agree completely, it's so of the time which is why I shared it. If the self darkening glass that will replace my aperture blades works as well as those eyeglasses that darken in sunlight, well, I better get a bigger flash.

The research of electrochromic iris had some progress already. Wink
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27909301


PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 4:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
That's pretty cool, Calvin. I wonder how much the camera iris component restricts miniaturization of smartphones.


PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 4:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
kenetik wrote:
That's pretty cool, Calvin. I wonder how much the camera iris component restricts miniaturization of smartphones.

I am not sure but the lens part is the most space consuming part.

This might be worth for you to read about how Apple reduce the size of the camera.
http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2013/08/apple-invents-a-camera-design-for-thinner-idevices-and-a-new-accessibility-app-tailored-for-chinese-and-japanese-users.html


PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 5:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
ZoneV wrote:
scsambrook wrote:
....more 'environmentally friendly' types...


I attended to a optic and glass manufacturer workshop on these laws (in Europe: RoHS). ....


For those, who don't know about RoHS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restriction_of_Hazardous_Substances_Directive

Need of environment protection is an obviousness, no question.

But - what the hack are those carzy politicians doing?
For example: Hasselblad SWC Biogon had to be redesigned to more 'environmentally friendly' glass types, arsenic and lead were eliminatet in the glass!
Who? - please tell me, who- licks on his Biogon lens (except me Embarassed ) or throws the Biogon like a not furthermore used bottle into the next bush? Buying a new Camera or lens lets You first read in the manual not throw it into the trash bin. And on each item is a plastic label always to remember You not to do that! Rolling Eyes. Who is planning to do that?

For Your fun:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/1567858

o.k. I'm getting off topic and close now....


PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 5:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
duckrider wrote:
..Who? - please tell me, who- licks on his Biogon lens (except me Embarassed ) or throws the Biogon like a not furthermore used bottle into the next bush? Buying a new Camera or lens lets You first read in the manual not throw it into the trash bin. And on each item is a plastic label always to remember You not to do that! Rolling Eyes. Who is planning to do that?
....


A Biogon and someone whon has some basic skills in photography would likely result in no harm.
But lenses for mobile-phones that are probably shredded after their short life - these are a problem.
Last year over a billion (1004 Million) mobile phones are sold! I suppose most have one or two cameras - about 55% were smartphones.

And remember after the German reunification a large amount of new Docter Optics largeformat lenses were disposed in a landfill (probably in their plastic bags, so some digging there could be interessting).


PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 7:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
duckrider wrote:
..Who? - please tell me, who- licks on his Biogon lens (except me Embarassed ) or throws the Biogon like a not furthermore used bottle into the next bush? Buying a new Camera or lens lets You first read in the manual not throw it into the trash bin. And on each item is a plastic label always to remember You not to do that! Rolling Eyes. Who is planning to do that?
....

That made me smile - but I think the environmental concerns are probably rooted in potential harm in disposing of the waste or by-products generated during the manufacture of the glass or the production of the lens elements. There was a case in England about 25 years ago where substantial amounts of radioactivity were detected on the site of an optical factory that was being demolished; the cause was at first thought to be residues from 'luminous paint' but the hot-spot was the site of the lens grinding and polishing shop, strongly suggesting that glass residues were more likely to be the culprit. During the 1950s the firm specialised in anamorphic lenses which, according to a colleague who had worked there at the time, used the then-new 'rare earth' glasses, some of which (as we now know) incorporated radioactive materials.


PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 9:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
scsambrook wrote:
That made me smile -


That's what my postings are meant for. Laughing

But there are so many other more urgend enviromental problems like intensive animal husbandry and it's liquid manure and contamination of food by bringing that onto the fields. Billions of tons of plastic bulllshit brought to our children by fast food trusts, non appraisable consequences of genetic changed food, radiactivity from nuclear power plant and so on....

What do the politicans do? Influenced by lobbyists they go the most simple way and work on things with of no vital interest....

Here in Germany we are waste separaters by conviction, but I never found a high priced lens or camera in the trash. Evil or Very Mad


PostPosted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
duckrider wrote -
What do the politicans do? Influenced by lobbyists they go the most simple way and work on things with of no vital interest....

Better not stray into politics here . . . but it's far easier to get a measure past potential objectors if it affects only a relatively small number of people who lack any articulate and/or influential lobbyists. Such environmental victories have resulted in the disappearance of cameras incorporating lead solder (e.g. Hasselblad X-Pan) and the wholesale revision of Schott's optical glass catalogue in recent years.

The reputation of the German people as waste separators is well known to me (see the book in which I'm co-author The Business of Waster: Great Britain and Germany, 1945 to the Present http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/economic-history/business-waste-great-britain-and-germany-1945-present ) - I shall persuade my German colleague to search systematically through the bins in his neighbourhood in the hope of finding a Biogon, or even a Domiplan Wink
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