Coded pinhole lens imaging

This paper presents a coded pinhole lens imaging system consisting of a pinhole array aperture, followed by a thin convex lens, mounted onto a standard DSLR camera body. The combination of pinhole and lens incurs two questions: (1) Is the new camera based on pinhole or lens imaging principle? (2) Can the lens improve the imaging quality? The study reveals that the camera is based on pinhole imaging, but the lens can improve its optical resolution from 0.44 mm (pinhole size) to 0.042 mm, leading to a significant improvement in imaging quality. The numerous pinholes on the aperture also improve the camera’s light throughput ability over single pinhole camera. The camera could be used for applications where a large depth of field is required while the illumination condition is poor.