An optical apparatus comprising: - a plurality of lenses including at least one lens having non-quantized anisotropic electromagnetic properties (400, 1002), - a phase shifter, - a polarizer (323; 502), - an image detector, wherein the plurality of lenses are configured to: receive electromagnetic radiation from an object, wherein the electromagnetic radiation is incoherent light; transform, by refraction using the at least one lens having non-quantized anisotropic electromagnetic properties including at least one birefringent lens (400; 1002), the received electromagnetic radiation to generate two or more differentially modulated electromagnetic waves propagating in a common path, wherein the birefringent lens (400; 1002) is cut in a particular orientation with its ordinary and extraordinary axes perpendicular to each other and both lying in a plane of the lens orthogonal to a direction of light propagation through the lens and wherein the received electromagnetic radiation comprises electromagnetic radiation polarized parallel to at least one of the ordinary and extraordinary axes of the birefringent lens; wherein the polarizer is an output polarizer arranged between the birefringent lens (400; 1002) and the image detector such that the differentially modulated electromagnetic waves interfere with each other to create electromagnetic interference, wherein the phase shifter is configured to shift the phase of the electromagnetic interference, and wherein the image detector is configured to record multiple of said phaseshifted electromagnetic interferences, and determine a complex valued hologram from the multiple phase-shifted electromagnetic interferences. - a plurality of lenses including at least one lens having non-quantized anisotropic electromagnetic properties (400, 1002), - a phase shifter, - a polarizer (323; 502), - an image detector, wherein the plurality of lenses are configured to: receive electromagnetic radiation from an object, wherein the electromagnetic radiation is incoherent light; transform, by refraction using the at least one lens having non-quantized anisotropic electromagnetic properties including at least one birefringent lens (400; 1002), the received electromagnetic radiation to generate two or more differentially modulated electromagnetic waves propagating in a common path, wherein the birefringent lens (400; 1002) is cut in a particular orientation with its ordinary and extraordinary axes perpendicular to each other and both lying in a plane of the lens orthogonal to a direction of light propagation through the lens and wherein the received electromagnetic radiation comprises electromagnetic radiation polarized parallel to at least one of the ordinary and extraordinary axes of the birefringent lens; wherein the polarizer is an output polarizer arranged between the birefringent lens (400; 1002) and the image detector such that the differentially modulated electromagnetic waves interfere with each other to create electromagnetic interference, wherein the phase shifter is configured to shift the phase of the electromagnetic interference, and wherein the image detector is configured to record multiple of said phaseshifted electromagnetic interferences, and determine a complex valued hologram from the multiple phase-shifted electromagnetic interferences. receive electromagnetic radiation from an object, wherein the electromagnetic radiation is incoherent light; transform, by refraction using the at least one lens having non-quantized anisotropic electromagnetic properties including at least one birefringent lens (400; 1002), the received electromagnetic radiation to generate two or more differentially modulated electromagnetic waves propagating in a common path, wherein the birefringent lens (400; 1002) is cut in a particular orientation with its ordinary and extraordinary axes perpendicular to each other and both lying in a plane of the lens orthogonal to a direction of light propagation through the lens and wherein the received electromagnetic radiation comprises electromagnetic radiation polarized parallel to at least one of the ordinary and extraordinary axes of the birefringent lens;