Selected by the American Library Association's 'Choice' magazine as "best technical book", the first edition of this book soon established itself as the standard reference work on all aspects of photographic lenses and associated optical systems. This is unsurprising, as Sidney Ray provides a complete, comprehensive reference source for anyone wanting information on photographic lenses, from the student to the practitioner or specialist working with visual and digital media worldwide.

This third edition has been fully revised and expanded to include the rapid progress in the last decade in optical technology and advances in relevant electronic and digital forms of imaging. Every chapter has been revised and expanded using new figures and photographs as appropriate, as well as extended bibliographies. New chapters include details of filters, measurements from images and the optical systems of digital cameras. Details of electronic and digital imaging have been integrated throughout. More information is given on topics such as aspherics, diffractive optics, ED glasses, image stabilization, optical technology, video projection and new types of lenses.

A selection of the contents includes chapters on: optical theory, aberrations, auto focus, lens testing, depth of field, development of photographic lenses, general properties of lenses, wide-angle lenses, telephoto lenses, video lenses, viewfinder systems, camera movements, projection systems and 3-D systems.