Aspheric lenses are helping to bring the world into focus for individuals and industry. Because they are designed to eliminate spherical aberration, they are particularly effective for use in photography. In recent years, the price of these lenses has dropped because manufacturers have developed new technology that allows them to be mass produced. As a result, more people are able to use them in their personal and professional photography. If you want to improve your own photos, consider investing in an aspheric photo lens.

Design

Traditional spherical lenses have a few weaknesses. Light passing through the center of a lens may have a different focal point than the light passing through the edges of one, adversely affecting the quality of your photos. An aspheric lens has a uniquely curved surface which allows the light rays to have one focal point, creating cleaner, crisper photos that offer more contrast. In general, larger glass aspherical lenses provide better results than their smaller plastic counterparts. 

Advantages

Since a spherical lens creates multiple focal points, fuzziness often results, which requires additional lenses and equipment to correct. Using an aspherical lens means you are not burdened by the weight and awkwardness of all that additional equipment. Aspherical lenses are more expensive to produce because they require precise measurement, molding, and polishing, but that cost should be offset to some degree because they often eliminate the need for additional equipment.  Aspheric lenses may also provide more attractive and accurate photos since spherical lenses sometimes negatively alter colors. 

Disadvantages

One of the main disadvantages of these photographic lenses is "onion ring bokeh." Bokeh refers to how a photographer purposely blurs background images in order to focus on the main subject. Aspheric lenses have a tendency to produce distracting bokeh, including a series of background, onion-ring circles. Recent breakthroughs in lens technology have addressed this problem through changes in the molding and polishing process. Now aspheric lens users have little to worry about when it comes to the background of their photos. 

Aspheric lenses have multiple uses in many industries. They are used to provide clarity during medical procedures and are leading to breakthroughs in our nation's defense. They are also being used to improve safety in the automobile industry. If you are a photographer, investing in one will help you produce higher quality photographs. They have far fewer weaknesses than spherical lenses and often do the job without the additional equipment spherical lenses require. 

To learn more, contact a company like R. Mathews Optical Works, Inc.