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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8135272 | Sub mirror and image pick-up apparatus having the same An image pick-up apparatus which is capable of increasing an AF area is provided. The image pick-up apparatus includes a photographing lens to focus light received from a subject, a main mirror that passes a portion of light passing through the photographing lens an... | 03/13/2012 |
| 7848630 | Autofocus adapter An autofocus adapter is provided and includes an imaging adapter optical system placed on an optical axis of an imaging lens when the autofocus adapter is attached, and a focus state detection adapter optical system placed on an optical axis different from the optic... | 12/07/2010 |
| 7783185 | Image sensor, imaging device and imaging method An image sensor includes imaging pixels that convert an image formed via an optical system to image signals and a first focus detection pixel group and a second focus detection pixel group respectively made up with an array of first focus detection pixels and an arr... | 08/24/2010 |
| 7747156 | Digital single-lens reflex camera A digital single-lens reflex camera includes a first mirror for reflecting part of a light beam coming from a subject through a photographing optical system and transmitting the remaining light beam. The reflected light beam is used for detecting the focus state of ... | 06/29/2010 |
| 7715703 | Image sensor and image capturing device An image sensor includes: image capturing pixels and focus detection pixels disposed together on a single substrate; and adjacent pixels that are not equipped with a photoelectric conversion unit and are disposed adjacent to the focus detection pixels. ... | 05/11/2010 |
| 7711261 | Imaging device, camera and image processing method An imaging device includes an image sensor and an estimating circuit. The image sensor includes a plurality of pixel units disposed in a two-dimensional array, each equipped with a plurality of imaging pixels with varying spectral sensitivity characteristics set reg... | 05/04/2010 |
| 7702229 | Lens array assisted focus detection A focus detection device includes an image sensor and a plurality of lenslets. Each of the plurality of lenslets has a distinct conjugate length and is associated with a distinct portion of the image sensor. ... | 04/20/2010 |
| 7689111 | Optical apparatus An optical apparatus is disclosed which can reliably form AF images and split the AF images to provide excellent focus detection performance in the phase difference detection method. The optical apparatus comprises a light deflection unit including a deflection opti... | 03/30/2010 |
| 7616879 | Optical apparatus and image-taking system There is provided an optical apparatus that provides quick and precise TTL phase difference detection and pupil slicing focus detection. An optical apparatus includes a first optical element for splitting a first polarized light component contained in light that pas... | 11/10/2009 |
| 7616878 | Optical apparatus including optical element for deflecting luminous flux An optical apparatus is disclosed, which is suitable for the focus detection by the TTL phase difference detection method, and capable of producing a pair of phase difference images for focus detection with high accuracy. The optical apparatus comprises a deflection... | 11/10/2009 |
| 7577348 | Focus detection apparatus and optical apparatus A focus detection apparatus is disclosed, which realizes both of vertical line detection and horizontal line detection over a wide area of an image-taking range in focus detection of a phase difference detection method. The focus detection apparatus includes an opti... | 08/18/2009 |
| 7577349 | Focus detecting device and camera system using the same device Although an area type focus detecting device for performing phase difference detection type multi point autofocus is used for high speed high precision autofocus of multi points in a wide region, there is a problem of cost increase due to the increase of the chip ar... | 08/18/2009 |
| 7577350 | Lens apparatus and imaging apparatus A lens apparatus configured to be mountable on a camera body having an image sensor includes a first focus lens unit, a splitting optical unit disposed between the first focus lens unit and the image sensor, a second focus lens unit disposed between the splitting op... | 08/18/2009 |
| 7561789 | Autofocusing still and video images A method for operating an autofocus system for focusing an image on an electronic imager includes providing an adjustable lens system defining an optical path for scene light and having at least one movable lens to focus an image of the scene onto the electronic ima... | 07/14/2009 |
| 7515818 | Image capturing apparatus This invention provides an image capturing apparatus which sets the spectral characteristics of a split light beam to be substantially equal to those of straight traveling light upon splitting a light beam coming from a photographing optical system and enables an au... | 04/07/2009 |
| 7499639 | Electronic imaging device There is disclosed an electronic imaging device having an imaging element, a mechanism which removes dust attached to the imaging element or an optical element disposed in front of the imaging element, and a display section which displays that at least the mechanism... | 03/03/2009 |
| 7466911 | Image taking lens An image taking lens forming an optical image on an solid-state image pickup element according to the present invention, is provided with, in order from an object side thereof: a first lens with a positive power; a second lens with a negative power; and a third lens... | 12/16/2008 |
| 7440690 | Focus detection apparatus and control method thereof An output from an auto focus sensor is converted into a digital signal by an A/D converting section, and an output from the A/C converting section is stored in a memory section. Further, a second AF arithmetic section is used to concurrently execute a plurality of f... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7414664 | Image taking apparatus and lens apparatus An image taking apparatus performs a focusing operation quickly and includes a light splitting unit which splits a light flux from an image-taking lens into a plurality of light fluxes, a view finder optical system observing an object image formed by the light flux ... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7405762 | Camera having AF function A camera having an electronic image pickup element and a distance-measuring circuit that uses light signals obtained from light images of a plurality of distance-measuring areas set in a photographing screen to select a main subject and measure the distance to the s... | 07/29/2008 |
| 7362512 | Lens apparatus and image-pickup apparatus A lens apparatus mounted to a camera including an image-pickup element, including: a focus lens means movable in an optical axis direction for focusing; a zoom lens unit; a zoom detector; an aperture-stop device; a stop-value detector; a splitting optical unit; a fo... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7330242 | System for recording an object space A system for recording an object space has a opto-electronic distance sensor which uses a signal propagation time method, and a transmitter for transmitting optical, signals, as well as a receiver (E) for receiving optical signals, reflected by objects located in th... | 02/12/2008 |
| 7317183 | High performance reflectivity optical encoder with a protrusion between lenses An optical encoder includes an emitter, a first lens, a detector, a second lens, and a protrusion. The emitter emits light which is directed by the first lens to a code scale for reflection. The reflected light is directed by the second lens to the detector. The det... | 01/08/2008 |
| 7309565 | Process for treating photothermographic dry imaging material Disclosed is an image forming process having the steps of exposing by an exposure device a photothermographic dry imaging material with a support having thereon an image forming layer containing photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent for silver ions, a binde... | 12/18/2007 |
| 7305179 | Anti-shake apparatus An anti-shake apparatus of a photographing apparatus comprises a movable unit, and a control apparatus. The movable unit has an imaging device, and can be moved in first and second directions. The control apparatus moves the movable unit to first, second, third, and... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7302173 | Optical apparatus A camera, in which it is possible to adjust the position of two mirrors easily for striking a balance between the focus detection performances in an optical viewfinder state and an electronic image display state. The optical apparatus includes a first mirror movable... | 11/27/2007 |
| 7283171 | Image pickup apparatus with external device An image pickup apparatus including an image pickup device configured to convert a monitored object image into an electrical image signal and to output the image signal, a clock generator configured to generate a constant cyclic drive frequency to drive the image pi... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7283737 | Focus detecting apparatus Disclosed is a focus detecting apparatus which is capable of enlarging a focus detection region and of enhancing focus detection precision. The focus detecting apparatus includes a secondary image forming optical system for forming a plurality of light, quantity dis... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7267447 | Variable focal length lens comprising micromirrors A variable focal length lens consists of many micromirrors with degrees of freedom rotation and/or degrees of freedom translation and actuating components. As operating methods for the lens, the actuating components control the positions of micromirrors electrostati... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7269344 | Optical apparatus An optical apparatus has an imaging optical system provided with a deformable mirror and an electronic zoom function that an image recorded in an image sensor by the imaging optical system is magnified by image processing. A ray deflecting function of the deformable... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7239438 | Variable focal length lens and lens array comprising discretely controlled micromirrors A discretely controlled micromirror array lens (DCMAL) consists of many discretely controlled micromirrors (DCMs) and actuating components. The actuating components control the positions of DCMs electrostatically. The optical efficiency of the DCMAL is increased by ... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7231143 | Manual focus device and autofocus camera A digital still camera includes an aperture stop opening, a taking lens system, and a CCD pickup element. In a manual focus device, an iris shifting mechanism sets the aperture stop opening in an aperture stop unit with reference to a first light amount gravity cent... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7151560 | Method and apparatus for producing calibration data for a digital camera Producing calibration data (to remove vignetting, e.g., color-dependent vignetting) for a digital camera includes: arranging, in front of the camera, a white reference surface that is to be imaged; capturing, via the camera, a characteristic array of data correspond... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7149420 | Auto-focusing lens with progressive variable focal element An improved method and module for auto focusing utilizes a variable thickness focus element. A different thickness, and thus a different focus, is optically coupled to an image sensor by rotating the focus element. Movement along the optic axis is not required. This... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7136104 | Mirror box and electronic still camera A mirror box comprises a quick return mirror and an optical low-pass filter. When observing a subject image, the quick return mirror is set to a reflecting position, in which the quick return to mirror is inclined to the optical axis of a photographing lens group by... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7133608 | Camera A camera divides a light beam having passed through a taking lens unit into two light beams. One light beam forms an image on a silver salt film. Another light beam forms an image on a CCD. A light path for said another light beam is provided with an aperture diaphr... | 11/07/2006 |
| 7130536 | Electronic camera comprising an automatic focus device using a phase-difference sensor and method thereof An electronic image pick-up apparatus acquires auto-focus data from each of an AF sensor module and an image sensor disposed in conjugate positions in a test mode, stores data on any relative deviation between those items of auto-focus data and drives a photographic... | 10/31/2006 |
| 7119912 | Ranging sensor and electronic device using the same A ranging sensor includes: a light emitting element; a projection lens for projecting light emitted from the light emitting element to an object; a condenser lens for condensing light reflected from the object; and a light receiving element, provided at the light co... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7110155 | Light modulation apparatus, image pickup apparatus, and drive methods therefor Disclosed are a light modulation apparatus including a liquid crystal device; and a polarizing plate disposed in an optical path of light made incident on said liquid crystal device; wherein said liquid crystal device is of a guest-host type using a negative type li... | 09/19/2006 |
| 7099575 | Manual focus device and autofocus camera A digital still camera includes an aperture stop opening, a taking lens system, and a CCD pickup element. In a manual focus device, an iris shifting mechanism sets the aperture stop opening in an aperture stop unit with reference to a first light amount gravity cent... | 08/29/2006 |
