an apparatus consisting of two pairs of identical lenses which is suitable as a compound objective lens for high numerical aperture imaging is disclosed . the compound lens also has a wide field of view as a fraction of the compound lens focal length . by suitable choice of lens materials , well corrected near infrared imaging can be achieved . when two such compound lenses together with a diffraction grating are assembled into a spectrometer , excellent wavelength resolution in the near infrared can also be obtained .