Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha

Minolta Camera Co., Ltd.

Hiromu Umeda

Takashi Okada

Junji Hashimura

Hisayuki Masumoto

Akira Fukushima

Hisashi Tokumaru

A new compact-size, light-weight and low-cost zoom lens system having a high optical quality with a very simple structure including, from the object side to the image side, a front lens group having a positive refractive power and a rear lens group having a negative refractive power. The zoom lens system is operated by changing the axial air distance between the front and rear lens groups during a zooming operation. The zoom lens system uses aspherical surfaces whose low-cost manufacturing has been enabled by the recent progresses in plastic molding technology and glass molding technology. Many embodiments of the lens compositions according to the present invention, and further more specific examples of the embodiments are described with figures and data that show compactness and high optical performance.

Compact size zoom lens system

A lens system comprises a plurality of lens elements, including a deflecting lens group, to stabilize a blurred image at a focal plane. The deflecting lens group moves slightly in a circular orbit around a predetermined central point on an optical axis of the lens system, resulting in the deflecting lens group being decentered in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the lens system and at the same time an optical axis of the deflecting lens group being inclined relative to the optical axis of the lens system.

Lens system

A zoom lens system comprises from the object side, a front lens group having a refractive power of a predetermined sign and a rear lens group having a refractive power of different sign from that of the front lens group. The front lens group is shiftable along the optical axis of the lens system in a zooming operation, and movable perpendicularly to the optical axis for decreasing a blur caused by a hand shake. The rear lens group is shiftable along the optical axis in the zooming operation.

Zoom lens system

A compact-size, light-weight, low-cost zoom lens system with high optical quality is achieved by using a ray restrictor placed at the most object side of the zoom lens system. In one type, the ray resistor shifts toward the object at a speed different from that of the most object side lens of the zoom lens system as the zoom lens system is zoomed toward the longest focal length, which effectively blocks harmful rays causing coma flare in the peripheral area. In another type, the aperture diameter of the ray restrictor varies according to a zooming operation. The ray restrictor of any type is especially effective when used in a zoom lens system composed of two lens groups. By introducing one or more aspherical surfaces satisfying a certain condition (or conditions) in the zoom lens system, various aberrations are further favorably corrected.

Growing community of inventors

Sakai, Japan

Hiromu Umeda