Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,

I am doing camera lens testing as my science project to understand distortions. I am interested in knowing move about who designs and studies the properties of camera lenses.

I’m thinking that photographers and camera store owners or salespeople need to know how lenses perform. If you are a photographer or involved with selling cameras, how did you first learn to understand all of the properties of different camera lenses? How did you learn to deal with distortions in your photographs? Are you a professional photographer or is it something you do as a hobby or art form?

I’ve also learned that there is a Society for Optical Engineers and I am interested in knowing what optical engineers do. If you are an optical engineer, how did you become interested in the field? What did you study in college and/or graduate school? What kinds of jobs have you had? Besides the kinds of jobs you have had, what other kinds of jobs are there for optical engineers?

Thanks so much for taking time to respond to my questions.

IMO: Except for perspective distortion and flare, lens or optical distortion so rarely affects the results.
Understanding exposure, apature, shutter speed, depth of field, perspective, motion blur, lighting, composition, and in the past film properties, and other things the photographer can control are far more important than equipment specmanship.

The best photographs come from being at the right place at the right time with the knowledge of how to use what you have with you to produce an image that you can envison or from happy accidents.

I'm an engineer and mostly and serious amature photographer. I've made some serious money from some of my images which has paid for most of my equipment; however, I've been able to make a far better living from my engineering efforts than I ever could from photography. Photography is a tough business to actually make a living from.