The Wollaston landscape lens, named for William Hyde Wollaston, was a meniscus lens with a small aperture stop in front of the concave side of the lens, providing some improvement of aberrations. It was devised in 1812. It was the first reasonably sharp over a wide field (about 45° at f/11Handbook of photography, Whittlesey House, 1939, p.37. or f/16) lens. Wollaston fitted it to an artist's aid camera obscura in 1812.Kingslake 1989, pp. 23–26, 307.
This lens was still used in low-priced cameras in the mid-20th century.Johnson, Charles S, Jr. (2010). Science for the Curious Photographer, p. 11. A K Peters, Ltd. Natick, MA. Besides its cheapness, the lens has the advantage of having only two glass-air surfaces.
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