So be looking for wafer thin telephoto lenses.

WHAT!?

Yep, those peppy gents at UCSD (San Diego) with more brains than brawn (but are probably great surfers anyhow) have developed a thin telephoto lens.

How thin is this lens? 5mm is equal to a focal length of 38mm. So yeah,, WOW!!

This sort of stuff is in the waaay cool category, as it has applications for many different imaging systems we all deal with on a daily basis. From cell phone cameras, to in car cameras (I’m looking at you Coulthard), to Micro Air Vehicles, security cameras, and anywhere else you want to slap a camera; now you can do it in the smallest thickness possible.

Best of all, this develops a concept that was brand new in 1672,, so, uhhh, we’re on the leading edge here.

 

This sort of system can bring some really neat new images to us soon.  The manufacturing style for mass production follows currently used directions with a little twist.  That said, it’s do-able, and do-able quickly.  You’ll probably see them on high tech defense type systems first (let’s face it, they’ve got the big bucks).  On the other hand, the next application to look for them in will likely be cell phone cameras.

Just think 5 Megapixels, true telephoto properties, and the whole thing the same thickness as a current RAZR or your standard iPhone (by then with enough memory to be interesting).

Special Thanks to Defense Tech for locating this. Those guys rock!