Nihon Beru-haueru Kabushiki Kaisha (bell and Howell Japan, Ltd.)

Hideharu Sato

An automatic focus adjusting device for use with an optical instrument hag a focusable objective lens which is adjusted by optical and electronic components of the instrument, such components determining the distance of an object by comparing images of separate scanning and reference optical systems. The device of the present invention has a low-reduction filter screen placed across part of each light path of the two optical systems. The filters provide an overriding apparent contrast to low-contrast object fields to cause the system to adopt a pre-set focus distance, but do not interfere with normal automatic focusing where object field contrast is adequate for normal system operation. Manual adjustment of the filter spacing varies the pre-set, low-contrast focus to any desired object distance setting. Five to ten percent light reduction in the screened part of each filter is adequate.

Automatic focus adjusting device

Disclosed is an improvement in an automatic focusing system for use with an ptical instrument having a focusable objective which is adjustable in response to optical and electronic components of the system for determining object distance of a remote subject by comparing images of scanning and reference optical systems. The scanner of the optical system is driven oscillatably across an angle to detect a subject between infinity and the minimum focus condition of the objective lens. The present invention relates to improvements in an automatic focusing system for use with an optical instrument having a focusable objective. More particularly, the improvement relates to optically correcting the images transmitted via the optical system to overcome problems of asymmetry of image position and/or intensity.

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Higashikurume, Japan

Hideharu Sato