{"id":34931,"date":"2026-10-05T01:03:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T05:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=34931"},"modified":"2026-10-01T23:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T03:32:44","slug":"calculating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/calculating\/","title":{"rendered":"calculating"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Painting of C F Gauss in 1840 by Jensen (courtesy of Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. Those of us who have delved into lens design in even a small way recognize the Gauss design. Before computers, lens design was calculated manually by mathematicians called (oddly enough) ‘computers’. This practice predated photography and lasted into the 1950s.<\/p>\n

The idea was to use a particular type of glass and curve for each element’s two main surfaces so each element reduced a particular image distortion. The number of uncoated elements \u00a0was limited since each added element reduced the contrast of a lens by giving rise to more internal reflections.<\/p>\n

C F Gauss<\/a> who initially created the Gauss two element design in 1817 was actually pre-occupied with celestial bodies and telescopes. His original element design was flawed by image distortion and was only suitable for telescopes (besides, photography didn’t emerge (as we know it) for a couple of decades plus \u00a0later in 1839).<\/p>\n

We have all heard of Petzval<\/a> and his contribution to photo lens design that made Daguerrian photography much faster. In a recent email from Ms Fuller in the Big Apple, she states \u00a0Lomography has reintroduced the Gaussian design in their new Petzval Metamorphose<\/a> lens. The ‘bokeh’ created by the original Gaussian design can be controlled and the geometry of each point changed by slip-in apertures that look like Waterhouse stops.<\/p>\n

While you may not find a Lomography lens at one of our events, you will certainly find something to capture your interest and your heart! This month we are hosting our fall fair<\/a> event (October 18th). Come out and enjoy the fall air and renew old acquaintances. Cheap admission, good food, free parking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. Those of us who have delved into lens design in even a small way recognize the Gauss design. Before computers, lens design was calculated manually by mathematicians called (oddly enough) ‘computers’. This practice predated photography and lasted into the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[4853,34,105,14,279],"class_list":["post-34931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fair","tag-acccessories","tag-cameras","tag-digital","tag-film","tag-lenses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34931"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34936,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34931\/revisions\/34936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}