Why are camera lenses round but photographs are square/rectangular?

Because is a mask before the film; actually all lenses produced a round image, but the mask eliminates the unwanted portiion of it

The lenses for cameras are a model of the human eye. The human eye is round. Pictures could be round, but I suppose that the inventors of the camera seemed to think that the way we see things in life is square or rectangle and that is why pictures are square or rectangular.

it really doesnt matter what the lens of the camera looks like it could be square if the manufacturer really wanted it to be but the shutter inside the camera is square.... and if you process your own pictures it could be circle if you wanted it to be so the lens has nothing to do with being square

Camara lenses, or any lenses for that matter, have to be "curved" in one way or another to focus properly. It's just easier to do that with a round lens. The pictures are square, probably, because the earliest cameras caught the images on square paper, or material, I can only assume it was paper.

The lens has to be completely round in order for the refraction process to work properly. The other side of the lens is rounded as well, just like the two sides of an eyeglass. If the lens was rectangular like the picture, the picture would be distorted.

Could you imagine trying to make a film with round frames?? Or framing round pictures when they only had primitive wood tools??


Seriously, I would think it had something to do with the paintings of old...............who decided to make them all square??