Zoom lens optical designs have advanced for over a century with technology and manufacturing development transforming the capability of zoom lenses. Although there have been many different kinds of zoom lens developed, most fall into three main categories: fundamental, enabling, and improvement technology. Indeed, some technology and manufacturing developments had been crucial to zoom lens optical design development in a pioneering way and yet are now generally considered obvious or even simple. In comparison, other developments are incremental improvements that may be combined together like building blocks. Altogether, the capability of zoom lenses has greatly improved to the extent that today many major performance characteristics are now equal to or come close to matching those of fixed focal length lenses. Some of these characteristics including size, weight, cost, producibility, and general image performance are dependent on widely differing technologies. For example, optical design, coatings, refractive materials, surface types, and the use of computers with suitable optical design software are just some of the technologies that, when combined, have driven the continuous development of zoom lenses and their optical designs. Using zoom lens optical design examples taken from literature and patents, the evolution of zoom lens optical design technology and manufacture is described following a mainly historical order.

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变焦镜头光学设计技术和制造的发展

变焦镜头的光学设计已经发展了一个多世纪，其技术和制造发展改变了变焦镜头的功能。尽管已经开发出许多不同种类的变焦镜头，但大多数都可分为三大类：基本，启用和改进技术。确实，一些技术和制造开发对于以开创性方式进行的变焦镜头光学设计开发至关重要，但现在通常被认为是显而易见的甚至是简单的。相比之下，其他开发是增量改进，可以像构建基块一样组合在一起。总而言之，变焦镜头的功能已大大改善，以至于如今许多主要性能特征现在已经与定焦镜头的性能相同或接近。其中一些特性（包括尺寸，重量，成本，可生产性和一般的图像性能）取决于广泛不同的技术。例如，光学设计，涂层，折射材料，表面类型以及带有合适的光学设计软件的计算机的使用只是结合在一起推动了变焦镜头及其光学设计不断发展的一些技术。使用取自文献和专利的变焦镜头光学设计实例，按照主要的历史顺序来描述变焦镜头光学设计技术和制造的发展。结合使用带有合适的光学设计软件的计算机，这些技术结合在一起就可以推动变焦镜头及其光学设计的不断发展。使用取自文献和专利的变焦镜头光学设计实例，按照主要的历史顺序来描述变焦镜头光学设计技术和制造的发展。结合使用带有合适的光学设计软件的计算机，这些技术结合在一起就可以推动变焦镜头及其光学设计的不断发展。使用取自文献和专利的变焦镜头光学设计实例，按照主要的历史顺序来描述变焦镜头光学设计技术和制造的发展。