Blender Graphics: Lenses and Optics

Blender =/= Cycles, there's are other options for rendering in blender that are more focused on accuracy than speed.

I personally use LuxCore for 99% of my work as it's an accurate renderer that's still easy to use. If you're interested in more hardcore physical stimulation there are various flavors of Mitsuba available and Appleseed is also worth a. mention even though there isn't a current blender plugin IIRC.

My understanding is that Cycles comes packaged with Blender - unlike luxcore

It feels like it's been forever since I last read a written tutorial. This is excellent. Wish we had more of this relative to the video content. Both are important.

I found this great resource for creating lenses and optical systems from scratch in Blender - I thought the HN community would find it useful.