A conoscope is a type of lens that converts an incoming ray angle to a position on the image sensor. Put another way, conoscopes measure the angular distribution of light. This is different from normal lenses (like camera lenses) that measure the spatial (position) distribution of light. If you would like to learn more about how conoscope lenses work, please visit our educational page. However, if you now know enough and are interested in purchasing a conoscope lens, you have come to the right place. We have been designing, building and using conoscopes for over a decade. You can see a few of them on our Completed Projects page. While we do offer several stock designs, keep in mind that all of our conoscopes are semi-custom, so you can choose between using an existing design and specifying a lens that is different from any other.
Why Would Anyone Need a Conoscope?
Some people have light sources and need to measure the angles at which the light comes out of the source, which you can read about on our Light Source Measurement page. Others need to measure the angles at which light scatters from a sample when it is illuminated by a laser, that is, they use the conoscopic lens in a scatterometer. Our first experience with a conoscope was while measuring the light output from an LCD. The instrument we used was made by Autronics-Melchers, which is now defunct.
Stock Conoscope Designs
For fastest delivery, we have several conoscope designs that are ready for production. The half-angles for the lenses are 4°, 45°, 60° (pictured above) ,and 80°. When matched with our standard 2.3 megapixel camera, each pixel represents 0.007°, 0.075°, 0.1° or 0.13°, respectively. The camera is a standard 2/3″ C-mount CCD-based camera, so we can swap it out for one of your choice. The only catch is that our software is tied to the camera driver, but we can also customize the software for your needs.
Conoscope Options
In addition to the camera model and the half-angle of the lens, we offer a number of options for our conoscopes. All of our conoscopes can be supplied with light sources appropriate for your needs. Both transmission and reflection light sources are available. We can also provide mounting brackets that will make it easy to attach our lens to your equipment. If you want the conoscope to be a standalone instrument, we can provide a mounting platform with manual or motorized controls for positioning of the sample relative to the lens.
Would you like to discuss our available options? Please visit our Contact Us page or call us at 651-315-8249.