In a machine-vision system, a camera lens serves one purpose: It gathers light and focuses an image on the camera's sensor. Thus, vision-system designers must treat lenses as key elements in ...

As you start to shop for lenses, you'll come across the terms "prime" and "zoom." But as with most gear decisions, understanding what those are, what their impact is and what you should choose isn't ...

SEATTLE—Primes are single focal length lenses, which can be designed with a relatively few optical elements and thus are capable of transmitting a lot of light to the film or digital camera sensor.