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Focus vs Collimate - What's the difference?

focus | collimate |

As verbs the difference between focus and collimate

is that focus is to cause (rays of light, etc) to converge at a single point while collimate is to focus into a narrow beam or column; to adjust a focusing device so that it produces a narrow beam.

As a noun focus

is a point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.

focus

English

(wikipedia focus)

Noun

  • (countable, optics) A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge.
  • (countable, geometry) A point of a conic at which rays reflected from a curve or surface converge.
  • (uncountable, photography, cinematography) The fact of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus'.
  • (uncountable, photography, cinematography) The quality of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.
  • (uncountable) Concentration of attention.
  • (countable, seismology) The exact point of where an earthquake occurs, in three dimensions.
  • (computing, graphical user interface) The indicator of the currently active element in a user interface.
  • (linguistics) The most important word or phrase in a sentence or passage, or the one that imparts information.

    • Verb

  • To cause (rays of light, etc) to converge at a single point.
  • To adjust (a lens, an optical instrument) in order to position an image with respect to the focal plane.
    • You'll need to focus the microscope carefully in order to capture the full detail of this surface.
  • To concentrate one's attention.
    • Focus on passing the test.
  • To concentrate one’s attention.
    • If you're going to beat your competitors, you need to focus .

    Usage notes

    The spellings focusses'', ''focussing'', ''focussed'' are more common in Commonwealth English than in American English, but in both varieties they are less common than the spellings ''focuses'', ''focusing'', ''focused .

    Derived terms

    * focus group * in focus * out of focus

    Related terms

    * focal

    collimate

    English

    (Collimated light)

    Verb

    (collimat)
  • To focus into a narrow beam or column; to adjust a focusing device so that it produces a narrow beam.
    • Lead bricks were placed around the radioactive source so that the escaping gamma rays would be limited to a collimated beam rather than filling the lab.
    I need to collimate my telescope so that the images are clearer.
  • * 2006 , Martin Mobberley, Lunar and Planetary Webcam User's Guide , page 22,
    • However, after a bit of experience, the collimating' chore can become routine.Of course, if manufacturers made telescopes whose optics did not move around, you would only have to ' collimate a telescope once.
  • * 2007 , Stephen Tonkin, Binocular Astronomy , page 69,
    • Binoculars can be collimated' by either eccentric rings on the objective lenses or by tilting the prisms with grub screws (set screws).Always ' collimate binoculars outdoors, or indoors by looking through an open window.
  • * 2008 , Roberto Ramirez-Iniguez, Sevia M. Idrus, Ziran Sun, Optical Wireless Communications: IR for Wireless Connectivity , page 61,
    • When calculating the size of the spot created on the retina by the lens of the eye when focusing the energy from a collimated source, the eye is generally considered to be ideal and diffraction limited.