Harry,
Your writing is very interesting. Do you have any weblink to share where people who would like to dive into (even more) details could?
Details like which company is working on this? Which lab is working on this? Where are the production sites.
etc.
Thanks a lot.
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Originally, Polycarbonate and Acrylic have been used in Eyeglasses/Sunglasses production.
Further information about such uses is below:
Master Eye Associates will prescribe the most accurate optical Rx for you with guaranteed Rx accuracy!
www.mastereyeassociates.com
www.sciencedirect.com
but for computer and video imaging application LITTLE has been done except in Infrared (thermal) imaging applications for reasons outlines below which are an illustration of the TRADITIONAL PROBLEMS of using polymer lenses in video, still photo and telescope applications:
Acrylic and Polycarbonate Achromatic Lens? - posted in ATM, Optics and DIY Forum: Hi, Im a relative newbie to optics (with several failed explorations and some on the back burner) and just pondering the following lens combination:Acrylic - index of refraction (n) = 1.49-1.492...
www.cloudynights.com
Lens Power and Chromatic Aberration:
HOWEVER, today in 2020 it actually IS POSSIBLE to make a typical still photo and video-centric optical lens for use on consumer and professional grade video and still photo cameras since much research and NEW FIXES for those traditional manufacturing and coating issues is now available from such places as GS Optics, Edmunds Scientific and many others:
Materials for plastic optics are driven by several factors with only optical performance being one of them. Learn more about this process.
www.gsoptics.com
Acrylic plastic is one of the best plastics for optical devices because of its transparency, scratch resistance, and non-damaging impact on tissue.
www.creativemechanisms.com
Plastic optics, made from polymeric materials, has become quite common for certain applications like in ophthalmology, miniature cameras and optical data storage. The article gives an overview on used materials and their properties.
www.rp-photonics.com
Plastic Lenses REQUIRE anti-scratch coatings:
Anti-Scratch Coating:The Complete Scratch Resistant Solution for Your Plastic Products Do you have scratch problem on your plastic product? If yes, then you are in the right place. Why? Because this guide is the ultimate scratch resistant solution: Anti Scratch coating Let’s check how the...
www.weetect.com
Good Technical Book to Read:
Handbook of Optomechanical Engineering
If you want to BUY Molded Acrylic Aspheric lenses:
Plastic molded aspheric lenses are ideal for weight sensitive wearable applications that come at a low cost. View our selection of plastic molded aspheric lenses
www.edmundoptics.com
Molded Acrylic Aspheric Lenses used in optics and photonics applications are available at Edmund Optics
www.edmundoptics.com
For Short Wave Infrared Imaging purposes someone has decided PLASTIC LENSES are good enough!
In this study, the optical performance of plastic (acrylic-polycarbonate-acrylic, acrylic-polystyrene-acrylic, PMMA-polycarbonate-PMMA, and PMMA-polystyrene-PMMA) diffraction-limited air-spaced Cooke triplet lens designs optimized for the spectral range 0.995 to 1.01 µm are presented. Comparing...
www.igi-global.com
Antireflection Coatings Make Plastic Lenses “Disappear”
Robust fluoropolymer AR coatings for plastic optics use two types of molecules to achieve an ultralow refractive index.
www.osa-opn.org
Precision CNC Machining Polymer Lenses:
Controlled Fluidics offers optical machining services with a range of materials, lowering your costs and providing an excellent product.
www.controlledfluidics.com
The key part is while there is ACTIVE RESEARCH into cinema camera-grade optics, there is NOT YET a viable product being sold in the general marketplace. However, if Canon OR Sigma wish to do so, it is EASILY done by their optics teams who DO HAVE the technical expertise to make FAST lenses made of polycarbonate and/or acrylic happen!