How come the camera is square, the photos are square, but the lens are round?
Monday, March 29th, 2010Just wondering why? Like shouldn’t it be a square camera lens?
Good question.
First, lenses are naturally round. Making them square would be a lot of work, would ruin the quality, would be bigger, etc.
Second, film is naturally square (rectangular actually). Otherwise you would have a lot of waste space, etc. Plus it’s easier to visualize a square picture instead of a round one. Square film=square picture.
Third, the real question. Why doesn’t having a round lens mess up a square picture in some way? Isn’t this like putting a round peg in a square hole? Why does it even work?
This is the way camera optics work: light comes from the sun, light bulb, etc. and reflects off a point on an object. The reflection scatters in every direction. Cameras capture as much of this scattered light as they possibly can. The physics of a lens is such that when an object is in focus, all the light that strikes the lens gets bent while going through the lens in such a way that it all goes back to a single point on your sensor/film. This is the magic of a lens–it doesn’t matter where the light hits on the lens, it all comes from the same point and goes to the same point (only true while in focus of course). It does this for every point in the image, coming from a point ending up in a point. This is why the shape of the lens, whether it’s square or round, doesn’t matter. The curvature of the lens is critical however.
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