Wollaston landscape lens

Wollaston Meniscus

The Wollaston landscape lens, named for William Hyde Wollaston, was a meniscus lens with a small aperture stop in front of the concave side of the lens, providing some improvement of aberrations. It was devised in 1812. It was the first reasonably sharp over a wide field (about 45° at f/11^[1] and 50° at f/16) lens. Wollaston fitted it to an artist's aid camera obscura in 1812.^[2]

This lens is still used in low-priced cameras. Besides its cheapness, the lens has the advantage of having only two glass-air surfaces.

References

1. ↑ Handbook of photography, Whittlesey House, 1939, p.37.
2. ↑ Kingslake 1989, pp. 23–26, 307.