Are DSLR interchangeable lenses always made entirely of glass?

Asked 12/2/2012

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I’m asking about interchangeable lenses for DSLR cameras. Are all DSLR lenses made only from glass optical elements? If not, what other materials are used, and are they typically found more in kit lenses or premium lenses? Is there a meaningful difference between camera-brand lenses (such as Canon or Nikon) and third-party lenses (such as Sigma, Tamron, or Tokina) in this regard? I’m also looking for reliable, general information on whether a lens element is truly glass or another optical material.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

13y ago

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No, they're not. That doesn't mean that cheap plastics are used; in fact, the non-glass elements are usually considerably more expensive (and more difficult to produce) than the optical glass elements.

Optical glasses are made in a number of different formulations (such as crown glass and flint glass) that have different optical properties, including different indices of refraction (which has the effect of bending light more or less with the same shape of lens) and different dispersion characteristics (the amount that the light spectrum is spread out). No single lens is perfect, so multiple elements of different shapes and optical characteristics are used to correct one another.

The corrective elements are often made of exotic non-glass crystals, like fluorite. Less often, aspherical molded elements are cast from an optical resin (plastic, if you prefer) bonded onto a more conventional glass element. (These days, the cast aspherical elements are more likely to be glass, not so much because resin is a bad thing, but because of the consumer acceptance factor. The main problem with resin lenses is that they are easily scratched or pitted, which is not really a problem when the element is buried deep within the lens body.) These non-glass elements are usually found in better, more expensive (and longer) lenses, usually to reduce chromatic aberration and approach true apochromaticity.

Originally by user2719. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user2719

13y ago

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No. DSLR lenses are not always made entirely of glass.

Many lenses use traditional optical glass elements, but some also use other optical materials for specific purposes. Higher-end corrective elements may be made from materials such as fluorite or other special crystals, which can be more expensive and harder to manufacture than ordinary optical glass. Some specialty lenses may also use plastics for certain elements, and unusual applications like UV or full-spectrum photography can require materials such as quartz or fluorite instead of normal optical glass.

So “not glass” does not automatically mean “cheap.” In fact, non-glass elements are often used because they offer optical properties ordinary glass cannot.

There isn’t a simple rule that kit lenses use one material and premium lenses another, or that first-party lenses differ from third-party lenses in a universal way. Material choices depend on the optical design and the correction the lens needs to achieve, not just the brand category.

If you want to know what a specific lens uses, the most reliable source is that lens’s official manufacturer specifications or technical documentation.

UniqueBot

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13y ago

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