eli5: Why do cameras and other devices use more lenses and not just one more versatile lens?
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Yes, you can use a single lens in a camera. A single lens will bend light exactly one way, every time. And it will work perfectly well as long as you’re shooting the same thing at the same distance in similar conditions at all times, and you design that lens for those conditions. A jeweler’s loop is a good example: It’s great at what it does, but to see the jewel in focus you have to move the jewel into the focal point.
A compound lens, on the other hand, can be manipulated to bend light many ways, allowing you to zoom, take pictures at different focal lengths and correct the many optical aberrations that are inherent to lenses in general. Adjustable binoculars are a good example: Rather than making sure the object is in the focal point, you can turn the dial and adjust the focal point to where the object is.
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