It has been stated that satisfying the Abbe sine condition is not just a good idea; it's the law! Andindeed there is a wide-spread perception among optical designers/engineers that an optical design thatstrictly satisfies the Abbe sine condition is always better than a design that does not satisfy the Abbesine condition. There is likewise a widespread perception that an aplanatic optical design is alwaysbetter than a non-aplanatic design. Believe it or not, in this paper on key lessons learned, I will dispelthose widespread perceptions by demonstrating that the Abbe sine condition is not a law, andsometimes it is not even a good idea! I will do this by discussing several imaging applications where anoptical design strictly satisfying the Abbe sine condition (or an aplanatic design) actually results inoptical performance inferior to that of an optical design with the same 1St-order properties that does notsatisfy the Abbe sine condition (or the aplanatic condition).
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