Petzval portrait lens
Objetivo de retrato de Petzval
- Date
- 1840 · confidence high
- Place
- Vienna, Austria
- Credited to
- Joseph Petzval (design); Voigtländer (manufacture)
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The first mathematically computed photographic lens, with two achromatic groups, about sixteen times faster than its predecessors. It cut daguerreotype exposure from minutes to seconds.
Petzval and Voigtländer quarrelled over ownership of the design; Voigtländer's factory in Vienna marketed it around 1841.
What it led to
- commercial photographic portraiture
- projection and cine lenses
- computed design of optical systems