Iwatani Corp. brightened the outlook for camera fans in October by announcing it had developed the world's first viable technology for synthesizing high-purity fluorite — an element critical to making the world's best lenses.
Lenses in top-flight cameras and telescopes require fluorite to reduce light dispersion, the main cause of the chromatic aberrations and color fringing that plague glass lenses.
The problem is cost: Most of the world's supply of natural fluorite comes from China, which has a lock on the market.
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