Optics, 2E

Rating:
Summary: Early Printing Errors Fixed
Review: The errors that appeared in the early printing of this text have been corrected in the later printings that are now being made available from the publisher.

This book is one of the only comprehensive classical optics textbooks at the advanced undergraduate level, and as such, fills an important niche. Practical material, such as image aberrations and radiometry, are handled here at a very accessible level, which makes the book a valuable professional reference.

Rating:
Summary: A good book ruined by errors
Review: This book is about the only one at its level: Significantly more in-depth than the classic by Hecht, but significantly easier than the brilliant but arduous work by Born and Wolfe. As such, it fills a niche that needs to be filled. It nicely covers all the main features of linear, classical optics at a level that is very useful for an advanced undergrad or beginning grad student in physics or engineering. Unfortunately, it is plagued by unaddressed errors. These make it downright dangerous to use as a reference. Caution must be used before applying equations found in this work. Although I learned out of it more than a decade ago, I have seen no sign of a corrected edition or a list of errata. This makes it impossible for me to recommend this book unless one reads it with pen in hand and a keen interest in rederiving each equation while marking-up ones copy.