Coherent imaging of extended objects

When used with coherent light, optical imaging systems are inherently unable to reproduce both the amplitude and the phase of a two-dimensional field distribution. This is because their impulse response function varies slowly from point to point, a property known as non-isoplanatism. For sufficiently small objects, this usually results in a phase distortion and has no impact on the measured intensity. Here, we show that the intensity distribution can be dramatically distorted when extended objects are imaged. We illustrate the problem using two simple examples: the pinhole camera and the thin lens. The effects predicted by our theoretical analysis are confirmed by experimental observations.