Customer Reviews

Useful Optics (Chicago Lectures in Physics)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a decent overview of standard topics. Sometimes he gets a little abstract, particularly in the area of aberrations. Also, you can correctly deduce from the length of the book that it is concise. I think of it as a reference for people who know what they're doing to quickly look-up facts. However, if your goal is to get insight on practical details and tricks, things that don't normally accompany a formal discussion but matter greatly in the lab, then this book is probably not ideal for you. The best I can recommend is the catalog from Melles Griot (amazingly enough, optics catalogs are almost as good as textbooks as they are as sales guides).

I love this book! it is not a book to start learning from it but as a graduate student i go back to remember some basics and useful optics... i have to admit i use it a lot and i am glad that i found it... it is sad that the author dies before publishing it but i want to thank soooo much his friend that actually finished the job... thank you!

This skinny, expensive hardcover book only scratches the surface of anything even close to useful. Sixteen chapters, 129 pages. The "geometrical optics" chapter is three (!) pages short. If you're going to get a Welford book, don't make it this one. His "Aberrations of Optical Systems" is much better (and more expensive), but I'm not putting that one down for a good place to invest your dough. The most useful optics book is "Modern Optical Engineering" by Warren Smith. The Rudolf Kingslake books are also very good, depending, of course, on what, exactly, you're looking for. I'd give "Useful Optics" one star if I found something wrong in it (not that I've been looking).