NASA Lenses

Speaking of Barry Lyndon, the film was famous for the fact that it was shot mostly without electric light, lit only by candles and gas lamps of the era the film is set in. In order to achieve this, the film acquired special lenses that had been designed by NASA to absorb light in such a way that he could pull it off. On top of that, he had to specially retrofit cameras to fit these lenses to the point that no other lens could be swapped onto these specially designed cameras.