lenses are circle. Sensors are rectangle. Would the resulting photo be skew out of proportion? What about oval shape lenses

Question

lenses are circle. Sensors are rectangle. Would the resulting photo be skew out of proportion? What about oval shape lenses

In: Engineering

Answer 1

You can make a lens whatever shape you want to, and it will still make a similar^1 image. It just happens that a lens’ shape has circular symmetry, so it is easiest to make it in a circle.

And once you’ve got a circle, if you chop part of it off you’ll end up with a smaller lens which typically reduces quality.

1. There are artrfacts from a non-circular aperture but they tend to be minor. You see them as streaks from bright lights mostly.