Recently learned about telecentric lenses, which are designed to capture an orthographic scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xP4lr1ojTo . The one in the video is less expensive than I imagined, only $10k ;-) https://www.edmundoptics.com/p/0045x-23-c-mount-titantltrade-telecentric-lens/3438/
@ranjit Thanks for sharing, that was a much better explanation about how they work!
@cibomahto neat! yt then recommended this video which is also fun - going beyond telecentric!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ4yL6kaV1A