Unified Analytic Calculation Method for Zoom Loci of Zoom Lens Systems with a Finite Object Distance

Abstract

The number of lens groups in modem zoom camera systems is increased above that of conventional systems in order to improve the speed of the auto focus with the high quality image. As a result, it is difficult to calculate zoom loci using the conventional analytic method, and even the recent one-step advanced numerical calculation method is not optimal because of the time-consuming problem generated by the iteration method. In this paper, in order to solve this problem, we suggest a new unified analytic method for zoom lens loci with finite object distance including infinite object distance. This method is induced by systematically analyzing various distances between the object and other groups including the first lens group, for various situations corresponding to zooming equations of the finite lens systems after using a spline interpolation for each lens group. And we confirm the justification of the new method by using various zoom lens examples. By using this method, we can easily and quickly obtain the zoom lens loci not only without any calculation process of iteration but also without any limit on the group number and the object distance in every zoom lens system.