P3D Review: Kingslake's "Optics in Photography"

["Dr. George A. Themelis" <DrT-3d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a review of a great book, "Optics in Photography" by Rudolf 
Kingslake.  I bought this book after I read John Bercovitz's 
enthusiastic recommendation in tech-3d.  I read it cover to cover and 
was so impressed that I got a number of copies for resale.  I did this 
because I am convinced that this book is GOOD for you!!!  You can buy 
the book directly from SPIE or get it from me for the same price (and 
support a stereo enthusiast in the process).  Please see my posting in 
sell-3d or email me directly for details.

First let me explain that I have a technical background and enjoy the 
occasional challenge of drawing figures and deriving formulas.  But, 
unlike cooking, the value of deriving formulas for me is not so much 
the end result but the process.  By working the formulas you gain a 
deeper understanding of how "things work" how rules are derived, 
understand the assumptions and limitations and become confident to use 
them or discard them.  

Technical understanding, in combination with experience, will built 
the intuition you need to become (with a good deal of inspiration) a 
good photographer.

This book will build your photographic intuition from a technical 
point of view.  Some of the chapters/concepts discussed in the book: 
Types of lenses, perspective (how does the camera record images and 
how do we view them), lens' aberrations, resolution, depth of field, 
emulsion speed, exposure, lens attachments, enlargers, projectors, 
shutters, flash, viewfinders, rangefinders, stereoscopic photography 
(yes, there is even a 22 page chapter dealing with stereoscopic 
photography!)

So, who is this book for?  The author says "this book is addressed 
mainly to the advanced amateur photographer who wishes to know more 
about the equipment and how it should be used".  Like it or not, most 
of us working with stereoscopic photography fall in this category.  
Most of us use manual stereo cameras and need to worry about exposure, 
aperture and shutter speed.  But even those who use automatic cameras 
need to understand  resolution and depth of field.  Finally, many of 
us are curious about lenses and lens' designs, simply because our 
wonderful stereo images are recorded and are viewed using lenses. 

Actually, Kingslake in this book has achieved a perfect balance.  It 
is possible to read the book laying flat in a couch, as you would read 
an interesting novel (napping between chapters too!) or you can read 
it with a pencil and paper, working formulas and numbers as you go 
along.  Or, you can do both, just as I did!  No matter how you read 
this book, one thing is for sure:  You will gain a new perspective of 
some familiar and many not-so-familiar photographic concepts.

To be continued.... -- George Themelis


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End of PHOTO-3D Digest 3274
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