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How a mirror lens works
The red lines illustrate the path light takes through a mirror lens. The blue and yellow areas are the lens elements and mirrored surfaces.
Light enters through the front of the lens and bounces off a mirror that's positioned near to the camera end of the lens. The rays are then bounced off a smaller mirror at the front and then directed back to the camera's film plane or CCD.
The light is folded so that the lens can be halved in length. This is why mirror lenses are fat and compact.