Types of Lenses

Basics of Video Camera, Lights & Sound

Unit 1
Topic 7
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 Suggested Further Readings & References

• Belavadi, V. (2013). Video Production. New Delhi: Oxford

University Press.
• Donald, R., & Spann, T. (2000). Fundamentals of Television
Production. Wiley.
• Millerson, G. (1999). The Technique of Television Production.
London: Focal Press.
• Zettl, H. (2005). Television Production Handbook, Cengage
Learning.
• Source of Images: Video Basics, Sixth Edition Herbert Zettl

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 Objectives of the Lecture

• To explain the students about types of lenses

• To understand about functioning of lenses

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 Lecture Outcomes

After going through this lesson, a student shall be able to

understand:
• Types of Lenses
• Functioning of Lenses

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 Introduction

• A camera Lens – consists of one or more pieces of glass that

focus and frame an image within the camera.
• A Lens is a curved piece of glass that causes light rays to bend.
• The lens determines what the camera can see.
• One type of lens can provide a wide vista even though you may
be relatively close to the scene; another type may provide a close
view of an object that is quite far away.

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 Convex Lenses

• Convex Lenses are thickest at the center and bend light toward
the center of the Lens.

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 Concave Lenses

• Concave Lenses which are thinner at the center than at the

edges bend light rays away from the center of the lens.

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 Compound Lenses

• Modern film and video camera lenses are composed of more than
one piece of glass and are called Compound Lenses.
• Compound Lenses combine several concave and convex lenses.

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 Lenses

• Different types of lenses also determine the basic visual

perspective— whether you see an object as distorted or
whether you perceive more or less distance between objects
than there really is.
• They also contribute to a large extent to the quality of the
picture and how much you can zoom in or out on an object
without moving the camera.

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 Optical Characteristics of Lenses
• All major types of Television cameras and camcorders are
equipped with zoom lenses or as they are technically called
variable focal length lenses. The optical characteristics of lenses
are:
• Focal Length
• Focus
• Light transmission or iris and f-stop
• Depth of field

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 Focal length and lens angle

• The term focal length is simply an optical measurement—the

distance between the optical centre of the lens and the image
sensor (CCD or CMOS) when you are focused at a great
distance such as infinity.
• It is generally measured in millimeters (mm).

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Focal Length

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 Focal length affects the following factors
• How much of the scene is sharp: The longer the telephoto
used, the less amount of depth of field (the distance between
the nearest and farthest objects in focus).
• How prominent the background is in closer shots:
The background is magnified at the same time as the
foreground subject. Instead of zooming, if the camera were
moved closer to the subject, the background size would be
different from the zoom shot.

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 Focal length affects the following factors
(Contd..)
• How hard it is to focus: The longer the telephoto, the smaller
the depth of field.
• Camera shake: The longer the telephoto, the more the
operator’s shake is magnified. The wider the shot, the less
amount of shake.
• The accuracy of shapes (geometry): Lenses can easily distort
shapes.
• For example, when a very wide-angle lens is tilted up at a tall
building, the building will distort, looking as though it is going
to fall.
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 Focus

• A picture is “in focus” when the projected image is sharp and

clear.
• The focus depends on the distance from the lens to the film or
lens to camera imaging device.
• Portable cameras have a focus ring on the lens.
• Studio cameras have focus control on the pan handle.

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 Light transmission - iris and f-stop

• Like the pupil in the human eye, all lenses have a mechanism
that controls how much light is admitted through them.
• This mechanism is called the iris or lens diaphragm.
• The iris consists of a series of thin metal blades that form a
fairly round hole – the aperture, or lens opening

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 Iris

• Remote iris control - CCU

• Auto-iris switch

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 Depth of Field

• The area in which the objects are seen in focus is called depth
of field.
• It can be shallow or great, but it is always greater behind the
object than in front of it.
• In shallow depth of field, background and foreground of the
object will be out of focus.
• If the depth of field is great, foreground, middle ground and
background will be in focus.

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Depth of Field (Contd..)

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Elements of a Zoom Lens

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Wide-Angle And Narrow-angle Zoom
Positions

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 The Lens system
Engraved on the front of every lens are two important numbers:
• The lens focal length—or in the case of zoom lenses, its range
of focal lengths. This gives you a clue to the variations in shot
sizes the lens will provide.
• The lens’ largest aperture or f-stop (e.g., f/2) - the smaller
this f-stop number, the larger the lens’ maximum aperture, so
the better its performance under dim lighting (lowlight)
conditions.

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 The Lens system (Contd..)

There are two fundamental types of lenses on video cameras:

• Prime lens (primary lens), which has a specific
(unchangeable) focal length. Prime lenses have become specialty
items, primarily used by filmmakers, digital filmmakers, and in
special use situations such as security or scientific research.
• Zoom lens, which has a variable focal length. Zoom lenses are by
far the most popular lens on cameras because of their ability to
move easily from wide-angle to telephoto focal lengths.

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 Type of Lenses
• Prime lens: The prime lens, which stands for primary lens, is a
fixed-focal length lens. Only the iris (diaphragm) within the
lens barrel is adjustable.
• Changing its aperture (f-stop) varies the lens’ image brightness,
which controls the picture’s exposure.
• The focus ring varies the entire lens system’s distance from the
receiving chip.

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 Type of Lenses (Contd..)

The Zoom lens: A zoom lens is a variable focal length lens.

• It allows the camera operator to zoom in and zoom out on a
subject without moving the camera forward or backward.
• The zoom lens enables the camera operator to select any
coverage within its range.
• Most video and television cameras come with optical zoom
lenses.

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 Type of Lenses (Contd..)

• An optical zoom uses a lens to magnify the image and send it to

the chip.
• The optical zoom retains the original quality of the camera’s
chips.

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Thank you

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