Fresnel lens are everywhere now... I most recently came across them embedded as a planar lens in a semiconductor part used for DNA sequencing:
The system described is for aircraft carriers. I know about it because I maintained a smaller version on a fast frigate in the seventies. It was slaved to the ship's gyrocompass, which provided a stable horizontal reference.
(Besides navigation, the gyrocompass also provided that stable reference to the ship's gun.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_plate
The diagram could be either, but isn't a perfect match for either. Perhaps a hybrid is possible. The 4-level right-angle construction (stair step) is weird.
There are two dimensions to focus, and they don't have to be done the same way. For example, the trough antenna is parabolic in one direction but uses something else in the other direction. Viewed from along the resulting beam, it is a rectangle. Manufacture the reflector involves a simple 1-dimensional bend of the metal.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/11-75-Fresnel-Magnifier-Projection-PR...
You’ve got to love Amazon reviews sometimes.
Googling “peewadden” also has an interesting story from the American civil war.
Looks like it's still online: http://www.noah.org/acidwarp/
I'm not sure where they got the plastic sheet lenses from... I know old rear-projection TVs used to have giant ones.
(They had a warning on the booth: "Do not take outside". I'd hate to learn that lesson the hard way.)
Years ago they used to be common on the backs of cars, so you could look where you were parking. Vans and estate cars invariably had them.
But now?
Backup cameras.
Same with the original lighthouse application. They don't use Fresnel lenses any more.
The lighting tech used for aircraft has superceded the Fresnel tech of old. So lighthouses are done differently now.
Even in home applications Fresnel lenses don't last the distance, You don't have hacky Fresnel lenses in products to make up for them having a naff CRT for the image.
But then again, Fresnel lenses do live on, but in better ways. There are many compound lenses for lights that are not a classic Fresnel lens but work nicely.
Fresnel lenses are like motorbike sidecars, they are a cheap hack. But if I was to post 'you don't see motorbike sidecars these days' then some nitpicker on HN would Google search a new Kickstarter project of a motorbike sidecar and - two seconds later - mod me down for being generally but not universally correct.
As I understand it the Nikon lenses are not 'Fresnel' as we know it. The idea is to combine a regular lens with a Fresnel lens to remove chromatic aberration. The weight saving isn't what it is about since there is still a regular lens that the Fresnel lens works with.
I'm of course not going to downvote you, but just to help you out with your point IMZ-Ural still manufacture motorcycles with sidecars to this day, and in fact are working on a fully electric model.
Tungsten fresnel lights (and now LED fresnel lights) are very common in videography. The lens provides a simple spot/flood mechanism.
For example: https://www.strandlighting.com/global/products/rama-led-fres...