Lens elements and group


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FrancisGabriel

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When I read the lens specifications, I have came across the terms elements and groups.

What does the elements and group indictate? And what does it affects?

Is it the more elements and group them better?

Thanks.
 

Let me risk being bombarded, just coz I'm bored in office now.

Elements would be the actual number of lenses used in the construction of the whole camera lens. More than one lens can be cemented together to form say, a doublet or a triplet, and that is called a group. Technically, because light/quality is lost at every glass-to-air surface, the less elements in a lens, the better. I'm not sure if it's the case with groups, since they're cemented with optical cement and there's no glass-to-air surfaces. I tend to look at a group as an individual lens.

So long answer short, the LESS the elements and groups, the better. That's why simple prime lenses are so darn sharp! =) Like the many 50mm's in the market...
 

but i think some lens group does different functions, like some counteract CA, some flare, some for zooming etc.
 

So long answer short, the LESS the elements and groups, the better. That's why simple prime lenses are so darn sharp! =) Like the many 50mm's in the market...

Sounds logical. Thanks for the explanation.
 

When I read the lens specifications, I have came across the terms elements and groups.
What does the elements and group indictate? And what does it affects?
Is it the more elements and group them better?

You can start reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_lens_design
When you read and compare lens reviews you'll notice that lens groups are more a result of the design (there is more than one option when designing a lens) and the functions of the lens (zoom and IS require their specific groups). Easy to see when comparing prime and zoom lenses of different range and also different makers. Please drop the idea that highest numbers or lowest numbers of something are any kind of quality indicator. For a start you can compare the Canon 50mm f/1.8 and 75-300 f/4-5.6 II - the amount of groups or elements is reciprocal to the image quality.
Finally, it's the resulting image quality what matters, right? :)
 

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