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**carlislestamford**

On 28 Sep 2008 07:48:25 GMT, wrote:

What about plastic lenses we ordinarily would scoff at? There are some better
quality plastic materials these days. Maybe it could be a semi-useful, even
if not the best quality, lens specific for shorter UV that you could ever hope
to get out of glass, without having to mess with quartz.

Some acrylics and specialty plastics are indeed exceptional in the visual
wavelengths. This is why they were so popular in the "almost disposable" 35mm
and 126-film cameras of the past. Quickly molded in mass numbers with the
perfect properties and curvatures needed. One or two plastic lens elements
taking the place of expensive and difficult to figure/assemble
multiple-component achromat glass arrays, the inexpensive and lightweight
acrylic lenses preventing nearly all chromatic aberration problems.

I have not researched how they might be used for IR and UV though. UV might be
difficult because the carbon-based materials are often fluorescent (or
absorbing) to particular UV wavelengths. Though I'm sure there must be some
plastics that would easily fit the bill. I've often thought that many of our
modern cameras today could benefit greatly from their (plastic lenses')
properties, especially with chromatic aberrations being a prevalent problem in
many digital cameras/lenses. Not to mention just the weight benefits and
cost-savings. I assume they don't incorporate them (on internal lens elements
only, to prevent abrasions) only because of the marketing aspect of advertising
"plastic lens components". The average consumer would not understand their vast
benefits over glass lenses and, as you say, scoff at them. Revealing only their
ignorance and stupidity.

There is not a large outcry for UV and IR capable cameras. I would be first in
line to buy an inexpensive tri-bandwidth (IR, Vis, UV) performer, but I'm the
exception rather than the rule. I wish my camera to be able to image in all the
frequencies that could be captured by a CCD array. As well as record audio from
sub-sonic to ultra-sonic frequencies. Your average person has no concern over
what they can't see nor sense, out of sight -- out of mind. They have no
curiosity about something that is beyond their crippled perception of reality.