Participate

Participation is what makes this site special.  Several sources exist for buying lens design files, but this seems to be the only open forum for exchanging design files, discussing lens designs and sharing information.

The simplest way to participate is to post to the comments section.  Let us know what you've found useful on the site, or make suggestions for improving the site.

Get more involved by downloading some of the design files, then describing what you see in them or what you learn from them.

Also, you can share your design files.  To ensure the quality of the site and the integrity of others' intellectual property, we insist that:

• 1. The design basis for your submission must be public.  Patent documents are the most common form of design publications.  Journal articles are also a good source.  When you send a file, please reference this publicly-available source.

  2. The design file must be of good quality.  Rays must trace successfully, image quality must be reasonable, real glasses should be used, and apertures should be defined.

  3. The design file must be yours to share.  Please do not contribute design files that you purchased from a commercial source.  Also, be careful contributing design files that you built while employed as a lens designer; depending on your employment agreement and employment law where you work, these files may belong to your employer.

  4. The design file must contain the text of the "MIT license."  In Zemax files, the license text fits nicely into the Notes section.

  5. The design file must be readable by the site owners.  As of August 2014, this means that all files must be in Zemax format.

Send the file to the site owner.  You can e-mail me on my gmail account: dan dot reiley  With your submission, please include a little note describing why you believe the design to be public and the file is yours to share.  A technical note would also help the other users of the sire; describe things like what you learned in building the file, any shortcomings of the published design information, how you used the design, or other interesting information