Lens (optics) curvature, wrongly assuming errors arose from defects in the spherical figure of their surfaces. Optical theory on refraction and experimentation was showing no single-element lens could bring all colours to a focus. This led to the invention of the compound achromatic lens by Chester Moore Hall in England in 1733, an invention also claimed by fellow Englishman John Dollond in a 1758 patent. Most lenses are "spherical lenses": their two surfaces are parts of the surfaces of spheres. Each surface can be "convex" (bulging outwards from the lens), "concave" (depressed into the lens), or "planar" (flat). The line joining the
Parallel projection central or perspective projection, in which the rays pass through a fixed point called the "center" or "viewpoint", as this point is moved towards infinity. Put differently, a parallel projection corresponds to a perspective projection with an infinite focal length (the distance between the lens and the focal point in photography) or "zoom". In parallel projections, lines that are parallel in three-dimensional space remain parallel in the two-dimensional projected image. A perspective projection of an object is often considered more realistic than a parallel projection, since it more closely resembles human vision and photography. However, parallel projections are popular in