Learning about optics, lenses and how light behaves

[Galvonaut]

I have been trying to learn as much as I can about laser optics, with the aim of projecting laser abstracts about a dome - 180 x 360 degrees.

The most experience I've had with optics is drawing some ray diagrams at the Joint School of Photography and using lenses as a photographer, so learning this stuff is yet another huge learning curve - especially when it comes to coherent light!

I thought I would start compiling my learning resources here, so that others can benefit or add to the resource if they fancy.

Edmond Optics has a great thoutube channel with lots of videos.
Nutfield Technologies has some great tutorials on their products too, including one that I found particularly useful regarding Telecentric Lenses
Optics realm on thoutube also have videos on lenses, focussing, achromatic lenses etc.

There's a bit of a start anyway. I will update as I find more.

Keith

[polishedball]

Did you ever find the information on the camera fish eye lens buffo had recommended?

[Galvonaut]

I'm not sure if it is the lens Buffo had mentioned but I've been looking in to some compact camera wide angle converters that seem like the right direction. The main issue I am having at the moment is the increased divergence but have more optics arriving soon to play with.

I've had beams at 360x180 which is really strange.... and difficult to keep the beams out of your eyes (ended up laying on the floor)! I am currently reading up on telecentric f-theta lenses - or some way of reducing the divergence when hitting a photographic lens from a point source.

Chromatic aberrations are also an issue but I was surprised to find 'some' white light coming out of the lens considering the cheap and nasty beam going in.

Bill has given me a little advice too but I think I will need to continue learning and experimenting. I'm not sure if I'll end up with perfection - I don't really have the budget or knowledge but I'm going to try and get the best that I can.

Keith

[Galvonaut]

I found this tutorial on Bi-Telecentric lenses. From my basic understanding these are different to Telecentric lenses in that both entrance and exit of the beam are on parallel planes.

I think I am looking for a telemetric output from a close-to-point source (galvanometer).

Keith

[Galvonaut]

Just found this on scanning lens Theory and read a couple of paragraphs so far. Looks very useful - my brain is starting to melt though

Keith

[buffo]

Did you ever find the information on the camera fish eye lens buffo had recommended?

Frank (Flecom) has that information. Apparently he's actually seen the lens in person. I know it was dirt cheap compared to a Disco-scan (like under $200!), but I can't remember who made it. (Think it was Canon, but not 100% sure.)

Adam

[flecom]

I have only seen a disco scan at a FLEM I think... never played with one personally... played with a couple cheap fisheyes with mixed results... for messing around at home it's fine but if you need something proper you should probably contact Pangolin

[Galvonaut]

Thanks flecom. I've been in touch but this is proving tricky - I'll plough on research

Keith

[TechJunkie]

Keith I have a large collection of optics I dont use. If you want a grab bag let me know, just pay postage.

Bluefan posted some need to know books on LPF a few years ago.

"A good book to start with is Optics by Hecht. I now also have Fundamentals of Photonics by Saleh, Priciples of Lasers by Svelto, Quantum Optics by Fox and nonlinear optics by Boyd. Off course the Introduction to Electromagnetics and to Quantum Mechanics books are usefull to start with. A book I still want is Lasers by Siegman, that's like a laser bible."

I also found a book on 4shared that may help. http://www.4shared.com/office/CMMqHl..._and_laser.htm

[Galvonaut]

Hey TJ, that sounds great! Thanks, I'll drop you a pm

Why do all the good books cost so much? Thanks for the reading list. I think I'll take this slowly :P

I'm just waiting 20 seconds for the free download and will make a start there. [edit] Not downloading that, it's an exe![/edit]

Thanks

Keith

Keith I have a large collection of optics I dont use. If you want a grab bag let me know, just pay postage.

Bluefan posted some need to know books on LPF a few years ago.

"A good book to start with is Optics by Hecht. I now also have Fundamentals of Photonics by Saleh, Priciples of Lasers by Svelto, Quantum Optics by Fox and nonlinear optics by Boyd. Off course the Introduction to Electromagnetics and to Quantum Mechanics books are usefull to start with. A book I still want is Lasers by Siegman, that's like a laser bible."

I also found a book on 4shared that may help. http://www.4shared.com/office/CMMqHl..._and_laser.htm