Hypercentric optics: A camera lens that can see behind objects
Why Hacker News recommends it
Commenters cite it as the clearest demonstration of hypercentric lenses and of looking around objects with optics.
What it is
Applied Science shows how telecentric and hypercentric optics differ from normal lenses, producing no or negative perspective. The video builds a telecentric system from a Fresnel lens and demonstrates a lens that can see around objects.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2022 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends grumbel · 2022-09 · on “Lensless camera creates 3D images from single exposure”
Applied Science has a good video[1] showing how you can look around objects. He is using a regular lens there, but with a lightfield camera you can emulate basically any lens you want in software as long as the captured lightfield is big enough. [1] [this video]
Cites roywiggins · 2022-03 · on “How does perspective work in pictures?”
That's sort of what a telecentric lens does. [LINK] [LINK] And you can go further: the hypercentric lens. [this video]
Cites mgdlbp · 2022-07 · on “Clinically clean lenses are destroying what makes cameras special”
I wonder why animation hasn't enabled more experimental cinematography unhampered by physical limitations. So many possibilities: Long takes are exponentially more difficult to film IRL with increasing duration, yet come at no extra cost when the actors and camera are untiring and deterministic. Ray tracing allows for arbitrary virtual lenses, from prohibitively expensive to physically impossible. I saw this video demonstrating a lens that can continuously vary from endocentric to telecentric to hypercentric, where several comments are along the lines of, > Now I really want to see a scene in a horror movie, where in camera, using a MASSIVE one of these lenses, we get to see the killer is be
Cites mgdlbp · 2022-07 · on “Building a Next Level Camera”
Wow, essentially an extraordinarily large view camera built around a repurposed lens, then converted into a depth-of-field adapter[0] in lieu of a digital back. There's actually a known technique for taking wide angle photographs with depth of field this shallow using only a typical long lens:[1] stitching together frames to build a wider field of view is all that's needed; long lenses all have shallow DoF by nature.[a] This interestingly can also be used to explain why the episcope lens has such shallow DoF: its focal length of 432 mm would make it a super telephoto lens, yet its large image circle means it has a wide-angle field of view. If it were replaced by a telephoto lens with the sam
Cites thenthenthen · 2026-04 · on “I Made the "Next-Level" Camera and I love it”
I think next-level would be a hypercentric lens that can see around / behind objects as build buy Applied Science: [this video]