Olympus Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Tetsuo Nagata

Kimihiko Nishioka

Takayoshi Togino

Akihiro Sakurai

Kentaro Sekiyama

Eiji Yasuda

Tetsuhide Takeyama

Takeshi Takahashi

Tetsuya Ishii

Tomoko Sato

Kazuhiro Matsumoto

Toshiyuki Nagaoka

Kazuhito Hayakawa

Yasuji Ogata

Akiyoshi Tochigi

An image pickup optical system includes, in order from the object side, a front unit having at least one reflecting surface with power that is rotationally asymmetrical, an aperture stop, and a rear unit having at least one reflecting surface with power that is rotationally asymmetrical. In this case, F-numbers in two directions perpendicular to each other on a plane perpendicular to the optical axis are different. Decentration takes place in one of the two directions and the F-number in a direction perpendicular to a decentering direction is smaller than that in the decentering direction. When the F-number in the decentering direction is represented by FNY and the F-number in the direction perpendicular to the decentering direction is represented by FNX, the optical system satisfies the following condition:1.1&#x3c;&#x3c;2.0.

Image pickup optical system and optical apparatus using the same

The invention relates to an optical system that has reduced power consumptions, ensures noiseless operations and fast responses, contributes to cost reductions due to simplified mechanical structure, and, albeit having a small outside diameter and small size, is capable of focusing and zooming. The optical system of the invention comprises a variable mirror and a moving optical element group. The optical element group has a zooming function, and the variable mirror has a focusing function. An optical apparatus of the invention comprises such an optical system as mentioned above.

Optical system, and optical apparatus

The decentering optical system comprises a decentering prism and a holding component. The decentering prism has two or more positioning portions at positions which sandwich an effective diameter of an optically functional surface held by the holding component. The holding component has a holding portion of positioning portions corresponding to the positioning portions of the decentering prism. Furthermore, on the optically functional surface of the decentering prism, two and more projected portions are arranged at a position which sandwich the effective diameter of the optically functional surface and is located at the outside of the positioning portion, and a projected portion is located inside of the positioning portion. The decentering prism is fixed for positioning at the holding component through the positioning portion, the holding portion of the positioning portion and the projected portions.

Decentering optical system, holding structure of decentering optical system, and optical apparatus using the same

An image pickup apparatus comprises one holding component which holds two or more prisms and an image pickup element. As for the holding component, a prism holding portion and an image pickup element holding portion are formed in one component. At the prism holding portion, an opening is formed. At the image pickup element, the image pickup element holding portion is fixed. Each prism is fixed to the holding component from the both sides of the holding component by fitting a projected portion into a penetration hole, respectively.

Image pickup apparatus

The invention provides an optical apparatus enabling diopter adjustment, etc. to be achieved using, for instance, a reflection type variable-optical property optical element or a variable-optical property mirror but without recourse to any mechanical moving part. The variable-optical property mirrorcomprises an aluminum-coated thin filmand a plurality of electrodes. Via variable resistorsand a power source switcha power sourceis connected between the thin filmand the electrodes, so that the resistance values of the variable resistorscan be controlled by an operating unit. The shape of the thin filmas a reflecting surface is controlled by changing the resistance value of each variable resistorin response to a signal from the operating unitin such a manner that the imaging capability of the variable mirror is optimized.

Optical apparatus

The invention relates to an optical system or apparatus such as a lens system capable of focus control and a variable-focus lens, which has reduced power consumptions, ensures noiseless operation and fast response and contributes to cost reductions for the reason of simplified structure. Specifically, the invention provides an optical apparatus comprising an elementhaving variable optical properties and an image plane. To correct the optical apparatus for movement of the image-formation surface of an optical systemin association with a change in the elementhaving variable optical properties, the image planeis placed in the range of movement of the image-formation surface in association with the change in the element having variable optical properties.

A zoom optical system includes only one optical-element group moved in a magnification change and at least one deformable mirror having a compensating function for compensating for a shift of an image surface caused by the magnification change and a focusing function. According to this configuration of the zoom optical system, it is possible to attain a zoom optical system and an imaging apparatus using the zoom optical system that have as small a number of movable lenses as possible, are very small in size, and work with an extremely low power consumption and low operation noise.

Zoom optical system and imaging apparatus using the same

A zoom optical system includes at least two optical-element groups and a variable optical-property optical element. The two optical-element groups are movable in a magnification change and have a magnification varying function or a compensating function for compensating for a shift of an image surface caused by the magnification change. The optical element has a focusing function and is disposed on the image side of the optical-element groups. According to this configuration of the zoom optical system, it is possible to attain a zoom optical system and an imaging apparatus using the zoom optical system that have as small a number of movable lenses as possible, are very small in size, and work with an extremely low power consumption and low operation noise.

A high-performance and low-cost image-forming optical system has a reduced number of constituent optical elements and is made extremely thin, particularly in a direction perpendicular to an image pickup device, by folding an optical path using only three reflecting surfaces. The image-forming optical system has a front unit including a first prisman aperture stopand a rear unit including a second prismThe first prismhas a first transmitting surfacea first reflecting surfaceand a second transmitting surfaceThe second prismhas a first transmitting surfacea first reflecting surfacea second reflecting surfaceand a second transmitting surfaceAn optical path incident on the first reflecting surfaceand an optical path exiting from the second reflecting surfaceintersect each other. The first reflecting surfaceof the first prismand the first and second reflecting surfacesandof the second prismhave a curved surface configuration that gives a power to a light beam. The curved surface configuration is a rotationally asymmetric surface configuration that corrects aberrations due to decentration.

Image-forming optical system

A high-performance and low-cost image-forming optical system with a reduced number of constituent optical elements that is made compact and thin by folding an optical path using reflecting surfaces arranged to minimize the number of reflections. The image-forming optical system has a first prism and a second prism between a stop and an image plane. The first prism includes an entrance surface, a first reflecting surface, a second reflecting surface, and an exit surface. The first reflecting surface and the exit surface are the identical surface. The second prism includes an entrance surface, a first reflecting surface, a second reflecting surface, and an exit surface. In the second prism, the second reflecting surface and the entrance surface are the identical surface.

A zoom optical system includes a deformable element having a focusing function and two lens groups movable in a magnification change and having a magnification varying function or a compensating function for compensating for a shift of an image surface. Alternatively, a zoom optical system includes, in order from the object side, a first group having a negative power and being fixed in a magnification change, a second group having a positive power and being movable in a magnification change, and a third group movable in a magnification change. The first group has a deformable element having a focusing function. An imaging apparatus is provided with either zoom optical system. Whereby, a high-performance zoom optical system with small fluctuation of aberrations in spite of use of a deformable element and a photographing apparatus using the same zoom optical system are provided.

The invention relates to an optical system or apparatus such as a lens system capable of focus control and a variable-focus lens, which has reduced power consumptions, ensures noiseless operation and fast response and contributes to cost reductions for the reason of simplified structure. Specifically, the invention provides an optical apparatus comprising an element having variable optical properties and an image plane . To correct the optical apparatus for movement of the image-formation surface of an optical system in association with a change in the element having variable optical properties, the image plane is placed in the range of movement of the image-formation surface in association with the change in the element having variable optical properties.

The present invention relates to an image display apparatus, e.g. a head-mounted image display apparatus, in which an image from a single image display device is led to two eyes without using a half-mirror, thereby allowing observation of a bright image. The image display apparatus has an optical path distributing mirror for distributing the image of a single display device to an optical path for a right eye and an optical path for a left eye, and an ocular prism R for the right eye and an ocular prism L for the left eye, which are placed on the right- and left-hand sides, respectively, of the optical path distributing mirror . In the optical path for the right eye, display light from the display device is reflected by a reflecting surface R of the optical path distributing mirror and passes through a first surface R of the decentered prism member R to enter the prism, in which the light is totally reflected by a second surface R, which serves also as a fourth surface R, and back-reflected by a third surface R to exit from the prism through the fourth surface R. The light is led to an exit pupil R for the right eye to project an enlarged image of the display device into the right eye. The same is true in the optical path for the left eye.

Image display apparatus

A high-performance and low-cost image-forming optical system has a reduced number of constituent optical elements and is made extremely thin, particularly in a direction perpendicular to an image pickup device, by folding an optical path using only three reflecting surfaces. The image-forming optical system has a front unit including a first prism , an aperture stop , and a rear unit including a second prism . The first prism has a first transmitting surface , a first reflecting surface , and a second transmitting surface . The second prism has a first transmitting surface , a first reflecting surface , a second reflecting surface , and a second transmitting surface . An optical path incident on the first reflecting surface and an optical path exiting from the second reflecting surface intersect each other. The first reflecting surface of the first prism and the first and second reflecting surfaces and of the second prism have a curved surface configuration that gives a power to a light beam. The curved surface configuration is a rotationally asymmetric surface configuration that corrects aberrations due to decentration.

Growing community of inventors

Hachioji, Japan

Tetsuo Nagata