Color image pickup apparatus with multi-solid-state image pickup devices

Abstract

A solid state, color image pickup apparatus separates incident light into three light beams, which diverge in three directions, to form three separate images. Two solid state image pickup devices correspond to a first and a second of the three images formed by the separated light beams. The two object images are a luminance light or a green light image, each having a first spectro-characteristic requiring a high visible resolution. The two solid state image pickup devices receiving the first and second images are displaced away from each other, by a distance in a row direction corresponding to 1/2 of the distance between adjacent picture elements, as viewed in the row direction. A color filter is located at the position of a third object image. The color filter includes cyclically recurring optical filters having a second spectro-characteristic (a blue light characteristic). Neither of these characteristics requires a high visible resolution. Another solid state image pickup device is illuminated with the object image, transmitted through the color filter in order to produce two separate images, depending upon the positions of the color filters.