Camera lenses are already mind-boggling enough, but seeing one that has been sawed in half still able to take photos is even stranger. Well, this is exactly what Viltrox did recently at the China P&E trade show in Beijing, when it sliced one of its lenses lengthwise before a photo shoot.
This wasn't just any lens, either. It was one of the company's premium AF 35mm f/1.2 LAB lenses, and the resulting photos were honestly pretty impressive – and quite creative.
As far as I can tell, there was absolutely no practical reason to doing this; it was simply a PR stunt designed to show off Viltrox's lens constructions. But it does have me wondering how the lens kept working.
Even if a lens is sawn in half, as long as light can still travel through every part of the lens unobstructed, a complete image can still be formed.
By slicing a lens in half, you won't block half of the image; you'll simply let in less light, typically resulting in a dimmer, grainier image. Admittedly, before seeing the results, I had imagined the subject being sliced down the middle, too. Evidently not.
When taking photographs, an infinite number of light rays bounce off your subject, with all of these rays traveling through every element contained within the lens barrel – even if it has been cut lengthwise – and recreating the image on the camera sensor.
Because light from the entire scene still passes through the remaining half of the lens, the resulting image still captures the whole scene.
Above: Physicist explains how blocking half a lens doesn't stop half the image from forming
As for the images themselves, they have an ethereal look with some unusual distortion, yet the subject is still clearly rendered. Although, I can't say I'm a fan of the choice of outfit or the questionable posing. Still, it's impressive that the Viltrox lens was able to function despite being only half of itself (see what I did there?).
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