News - New digital camera lens is based on the compound eye of a fire ant

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It is useful as it provides a very wide field of view with an “infinite” depth of field.

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Read more.

Hmmm.. I can get an infinite field of view with my phone camera by focussing a few metres away.. is this just marketing speak?

What you are getting with your phone camera is a focal range from however number of meters to infinity, not an infinite depth of field. If you are focusing to infinity, the distance between you and where that focal plain starts will be out of focus. To get that bit in focus, the lens actually needs to move to get it in focus. With this lens, whether it is right next to the lens or miles away, it will be in focus. Meaning moving objects will always be in focus no matter where they are in the scene without the lens having to move to keep them clear.

The article suggests security cameras, so a person walking towards the camera would always be in focus at the same time as someone entering the scene at some distance would also be in focus without the camera/lens/operator having to do anything. This will make the lens/camera smaller, lighter and more reliable as there will be no moving parts.

Pretty clever stuff.

Hehe the bottom picture made me think "It's a trap!"

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Originally Posted by Funkstar

What you are getting with your phone camera is a focal range from however number of meters to infinity, not an infinite depth of field. If you are focusing to infinity, the distance between you and where that focal plain starts will be out of focus. To get that bit in focus, the lens actually needs to move to get it in focus. With this lens, whether it is right next to the lens or miles away, it will be in focus. Meaning moving objects will always be in focus no matter where they are in the scene without the lens having to move to keep them clear.

The article suggests security cameras, so a person walking towards the camera would always be in focus at the same time as someone entering the scene at some distance would also be in focus without the camera/lens/operator having to do anything. This will make the lens/camera smaller, lighter and more reliable as there will be no moving parts.

Pretty clever stuff.

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Ok - having read the article properly on something other than my phone, it looks like they intend to use lots of lenses to ensure a wide field of view and a wide focal range. Surely this raises issues with the sensor? - is it expected to handle the image from each lens, presumably sequentially, or is there to be more than one sensor?
I'm yet to be convinced that bunging 180 lenses onto a camera, each with a different focal range/angle of view, is likely to offer much besides massive compromises, and many of the issues purportedly solved (wide FOV, massive focal range) have been solved via other means (wide angle lenses +/- small sensors will make a FOV so large it is to all intents and purposes infinite - e.g. from 20cm to infinite). For example, even my 60D will have a very large DOF at a fairly standard wide angle of 10mm and aperture of f5.6 - from less than 0.5m to infinity - and that is with a relatively large sensor; I'd expect greater still from your typical wide-angle CCTV.

It always amazes me what people can do with technology and biology