Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Eriko Namazue

Akio Kashiwazaki

Ichiro Onuki

Takeshi Miyazaki

Masataka Yashima

Osamu Kanome

Kohei Watanabe

Shinichi Masuda

Hideki Dobashi

Chikara Aoshima

Akihiko Nagano

Ryuji Katsuragi

Makoto Miyawaki

A diaphragm blade includes a light-shielding, thin-plate blade base made of laser absorptive resin to regulate an aperture, and a first shaft portion made of laser transmissive resin and provided on one surface of the blade base. The first shaft portion includes a cylindrical member which is welded to the protruding weld portion, a protruding weld portion integrally formed with the blade base, and a recess formed at the back side of the protruding weld portion. The cylindrical member has a first recess defined at one end thereof near the blade base and coming into contact with the protruding weld portion, and a second recess defined at the other end. A contact surface of the protruding weld portion is melted with laser beam transmitted through the cylindrical member, whereby the protruding weld portion is welded to the cylindrical member.

Diaphragm blade, method of manufacturing the same, and light quantity controller having the same

A production process of a light amount adjustment member, by which a cheap light amount adjustment member hating excellent optical properties can be simply produced is provided. A light amount adjustment device and a photographing apparatus which are cheap, have excellent optical properties and are equipped with the light amount adjustment member are provided by providing the simple production process of the light amount adjustment member. The production process comprises the step of relatively scanning an ink-jet head, from which an ink is ejected on a transparent base material, on the surface of which an ink-receiving layer has been formed, to the transparent base material to apply the ink to the ink-receiving layer, thereby forming a light amount adjustment region, wherein in the step of forming the light amount adjustment region, the ink is ejected from the ink-jet head in such a manner that the ink is applied to the whole light amount adjustment region.

Production process of light amount adjustment member, light amount adjustment member, light amount adjustment device and photographing apparatus

At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to a light quantity adjusting apparatus that can include a first blade member configured to be driven by a drive source, such as a motor, and a second blade member whose movement is configured to be related to the movement of the first blade member.

Light quantity adjusting apparatus, image pickup apparatus and optical apparatus

A production process of a light amount adjustment member, by which a light amount adjustment member that can sufficiently satisfy optical properties can be economically produced at low production cost and high yield by a simple operation is provided. In addition, a wide variety of light amount adjustment devices and photographing apparatus equipped with a light amount adjustment member are cheaply provided while achieving satisfactory optical properties. The production process of the light amount adjustment member comprises the step of applying a coloring liquid containing a coloring material to a transparent base material using a liquid jet recording process to form a light amount adjustment region having a particular optical density.

A driving apparatus that can be made compact, without increasing the number of component parts and decreasing diameters of a rotating shaft and bearings. When a first unit assembled from a first stator and a first bobbin is coupled to a second unit assembled from a second stator and a second bobbin, engaging portions of the first bobbin are caused by a first switching member to shift from a disengaged state from the first stator to an engaged state with the first stator, and a second switching member, and engaging portions of the second bobbin are caused by a second switching member to shift from a disengaged state from the second stator to an engaged state with the second stator.

Driving apparatus

A retractable lens barrel achieving thinning thereof in both directions parallel and perpendicular to a photographic optical axis. The lens barrel has a first lens and a second lens disposed in an inside thereof, and has a structure in which an optical axis of the second lens is aligned with an optical axis of the first lens when photographing, and the first lens is moved to a housed position and the second lens is moved in a retreating direction from the optical axis of the first lens when the first and second lenses are retracted. The lens barrel also has a holding member for holding the second lens and a rotation unit for rotating the holding member of the second lens, the holding member being rotated about a rotation shaft different from the optical axis of the first lens and perpendicular to the optical axes of the first and second lenses.

Lens barrel suitable to be housed

An image pickup element includes: a photoelectric conversion section; a wavelength selection section formed closer to an incident side of light than said photoelectric conversion section, for transmitting light in a predetermined wavelength range; a first area having a predetermined refractive index and being formed closer to the incident side of light than said wavelength selection section; and a second area having a predetermined refractive index and being formed closer to the incident side of light than said first area wherein the refractive index of said first area is higher than the refractive index of said second area.

Image pickup apparatus for reflecting light at an area between successive refractive areas

An image pickup element comprising a plurality of pixels, each including a photoelectric conversion section and a wavelength selection section for transmitting to the photoelectric conversion section light of a predetermined wavelength range, wherein the wavelength selection section has a vertex, and wherein, for a pixel located in the peripheral portion of the image pickup element, the vertex of the wavelength selection section is located closer to the center of the image pickup element than to the center of the photoelectric conversion section.

Image pickup apparatus for photographing an object

It is an object of this invention to independently control the F-number and the number of light attenuation steps of a multi-density ND filter by using a light amount control apparatus using an iris stop and the ND filter. The iris stop mechanism made up of a plurality of aperture blades and the ND filter having a multi-density pattern are stacked in a single unit. This simultaneously realizes continuous control of the F-number, multi-step control of the light attenuation ratio of the ND filter, a substantially circular stop aperture, and a uniform transmittance distribution in the stop aperture. In the first embodiment, the driving region of an actuator is divided into an ND control region and aperture control region. This makes it possible to independently control the F-number and the number of ND steps by the single actuator.

Light amount control apparatus, photographing apparatus, and filter

An optical filter is disclosed which adjusts the contours of blurred images and maintains the size of blurred images. The optical filter includes a substrate being substantially transparent and a first layer whose optical density changes continuously, formed on the substrate. A transmission rate of the first layer decreases substantially linearly from a center toward a periphery of the optical filter, and the transmission rate distribution is symmetric with respect to the center.

Light amount adjusting apparatus, optical equipment, optical filter and image-taking apparatus

A light amount adjustment member, which causes little deterioration of image quality by diffraction at a grain boundary between ink dots in a colored portion, can be simply produced at low production cost and high yield. The light amount adjustment member has a density distribution such that an optical density varies continuously or stepwise. The process comprises steps of providing a transparent base material having a receptive layer comprised of a material capable of absorbing a coloring liquid and containing a resin and crosslinking agent, applying the coloring liquid to the layer using an ink-jet recording method to form a light amount adjustment region having a particular optical density region, storing the layer under a prescribed environment after application of the coloring liquid to the layer to cause dots formed by the coloring liquid to bleed and crosslinking the resin contained in the layer by the crosslinking agent.

Production process of light amount adjustment member, light amount adjustment device and photographing apparatus

An optical filter which can be manufactured at low cost and is excellent in optical characteristics is disclosed. The optical filter has a transparent substrate and a first layer which is formed on the surface of the transparent substrate. Here, the first layer has a first area which is substantially transparent and a second area which has colored ink and is light-amount adjustable, and the optical path lengths with respect to the first and the second areas are substantially equal.

Optical filter, method of making optical filter, light amount adjusting apparatus and optical equipment

There is disclosed a light amount adjustment apparatus for adjusting a state of a flux passed through an aperture having a predetermined aperture diameter, the apparatus comprising: a light amount adjustment member in which a first region having a predetermined transmittance to the flux and a second region for blocking the flux are disposed on the same base material. In the light amount adjustment apparatus, although an optical filter is integrally constituted with a diaphragm blade, there is little positional shift of an ND filter, a shape of the ND filter has a degree of freedom, deterioration of resolution of an image is improved for use in optical apparatuses such as a photographing apparatus, optical properties are superior, the whole apparatus can be miniaturized, and cost reduction of a product can be achieved.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Eriko Namazue