Review and Prospect of Optical Lens Industry
Optical lenses are generally called camera lenses or photographic lenses, referred to as lenses. Its function is optical imaging. Optical lens is an indispensable component in the optical imaging system, which directly affects the quality of the imaging and affects the implementation and effect of the algorithm.
1. The Classification Of Optical Lens Products
From the perspective of lens optical lens characteristics and materials, optical lenses are mainly divided into plastic lenses, glass lenses and glass-plastic hybrid lenses. Whether it is a plastic lens or a glass lens, its structure is composed of multiple lenses. Generally speaking, the more the number of lenses, the higher the imaging quality of the lens. Because plastic lenses and glass lenses differ greatly in terms of material properties, positive processing, and light transmittance, the final scope of application is also very different. Plastic lenses are lenses made of optical plastic lenses. Due to its strong plasticity, it can be easily made into an aspheric shape. It is widely used in mobile phones and digital equivalent devices.
Glass lens is made of optical glass. Because it has higher requirements on molding technology, coating technology, precision processing, and its light transmission characteristics, it is more used in high-end imaging fields, such as SLR cameras and high-end scanners.
Glass-plastic hybrid lens, composed of some glass lenses and some plastic lenses. It combines the characteristics of both, with refractive index optical performance and stability. Therefore, it is widely used in lens modules such as surveillance cameras, digital cameras, and car cameras.
2. Development history of global optical lenses
Since the appearance of the earliest crescent camera lens in 1812, optical lenses have gone through more than 200 years of development history. In the early 19th century, British physicist Marathon invented the crescent lens. Crescent convex lens is the earliest photographic lens in the world. From this time to the 1960s, two-lens lenses, three-lens Cook lenses, two-lens Gauss lenses, four-lens celestial lenses, five-lens beaver lenses, and six-lens Sonar lenses have appeared successively. During this period, around 1950, Dr. Frank Baker of the United States designed the world's first zoom lens for cameras.
Beginning in 1970, Pentax pioneered the development of SMC multilayer coating technology. At the same time, Carl Zeiss Jena of Germany introduced MC multilayer coating lens, and the technology was widely used. In the 1990s, the world's first internal-focus 35mm camera lens with anti-shake function was launched.Subsequently, Nikon, Sigma and TAMRON developed their own optical image stabilization technology. Today, after the digitalization of cameras, lens manufacturers have designed digital lenses based on the characteristics of digital cameras, and designed and improved around the characteristics of photosensitive elements.
After a century of development, the optical lens industry has become more mature.In the world, the manufacturing process of optical lens in developed countries is relatively advanced. In particular, Germany and Japan have a long history and tradition in lens research and manufacturing, which has created optical giants such as Leica and Carl Zeiss. Among them, Carl Zeiss lens is still a typical representative of the world's lens manufacturing technology. The Japanese optical lens industry has developed rapidly since World War II. With a higher price-performance ratio, it has gradually gained an advantage in the global lens industry market. Major manufacturers include Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus, etc.
3. Development Prospects of China’s Optical Lens Industry
The development of China's optical lens industry is inseparable from military technology. In the 1960s and 1970s, China's optical enterprises were mainly military enterprises in Yunnan, Sichuan, Fujian and other places. The domestic civilian optical lens industry started lately. Only after 2000, there are some optical industries get involved in the civilian optical lens market. Before 2008, the domestic optical lens market was basically monopolized by Japan and Germany. Optical imaging equipment in the security surveillance market, mobile phone market, and medical imaging market basically does not have lenses produced in mainland China. The lens products produced by Taiwan's personal industry also appear only on a few low-end devices.
With the maturity of the Japanese optical lens manufacturing industry and the increasing number of applied products, the cost of optical products has decreased. Japanese optical technology has also gradually spread to neighboring countries and regions. Including Taiwan, South Korea and Mainland China, the scale of optical lens production is expanding. Companies such as Taiwan Daliguang and Asia Optics have appeared. In recent years, the optical lens industry has rapidly shifted to mainland. Mainland China is gradually becoming the main processing and production place for optical lenses in the world.
The slowdown in the upgrade of imaging pixels has left a catch-up gap for optical lens companies in mainland China. In the application fields of security, vehicle and other emerging application markets, there have been batches of differentiated competitive enterprises. At present, China's security market is developing rapidly. Hikvision, Dahua and other domestic security companies have competed with world-renowned security companies such as Bosch and Axis, and domestic substitution is accelerating.
In terms of high-resolution fixed focus, starlight fixed-focus large-magnification zoom, ultra high-definition, optical image stabilization, security surveillance body camera lenses and other mid-to-high-end optical lenses, domestic enterprises gradually broke the technology monopoly of Japan and Germany, ushering in good development opportunities. Among them, the representative companies are Sunny Optical, United Optoelectronics, and Yutong Optics.
