Convex optics

The convex optics of Mountain Instruments can be tailored exactly to customer-specific requirements. We offer various coatings, mirrors, lenses, windows, prisms, polarization optics, UV and IR optics as well as optical filters. Depending on the application, we have flat and biconvex optics.

Plano-convex optics

These lenses focus parallel beams onto a light spot. The spot is a real image that can be projected onto a screen or manipulated with a spatial filter. The asymmetry of a plano-convex lens minimizes spherical aberrations when either the object distance or the image distance is more than 5 times the other. To minimize aberrations, a plano-convex lens must be placed so that the plane side points to the nearest conjugate point.

Biconvex optics

These symmetrical lenses also have positive focal lengths and produce real images of various objects. However, these lenses minimize the spherical aberrations for nearly symmetrical positions of the conjugated points with respect to the lens. For an exactly symmetrical image with 1:1 magnification not only the spherical aberration is minimized but also coma and distortion are completely eliminated. As a rule of thumb, biconvex lenses are best used for magnifications between 1/5 and 5.