Ever since he joined the company, Mr. Honda has been engaged in lens-polishing and has worked with various types of lenses, such as interchangeable lenses for single-lens reflex cameras, microscope lenses and lenses for IC steppers and scanners. He is currently responsible for polishing the frontmost lens of super-telephoto interchangeable lenses. The front lenses of some super-telephoto lenses have diameters of up to 150 mm, which is large for a camera lens.

The rear lenses in a super-telephoto lens further magnify the image that has been formed by the foremost lens and then form the final image on the image sensor. If the lens in the foremost section is of low quality, the inferior image will be enlarged, and the quality of the final image will inevitably suffer. As a result, the polishing of the front lens must be carried out with a high degree of precision.

When a lens is polished, the friction between the lens and the polishing plate generates heat. Since the lens expands as a result of this heat, it is not possible to accurately measure the shape of the lens either during or immediately after polishing. Given this change in shape, the operator must be able to predict the final shape of the lens.

"The wider surface area of a large-aperture lens results in greater friction being generated. Thus, when polishing the lens, it is all the more necessary to take into account the change in shape due to the heat. This is what makes polishing large-aperture lenses difficult."

• Pitch polishing and pad polishing
• The lens-polishing process
• Promoting standardization
• The skill to combine technique and efficiency