Optical system and optical apparatus

• US 6,018,423 A
• Filed: 06/11/1998
• Issued: 01/25/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Takahashi, Koichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Ben, Loha
• Application Number:
  US09/095,723
• Time in Patent Office: 593 Days
• Field of Search: 359/618, 359/629, 359/631, 359/633, 359/634, 359/637, 359/676, 359/720, 250/494.1, 345/7, 345/8
• US Class Current: 359/633
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 17/0816 off-axis or unobscured systems in which not all of the mirrors share a common axis of rotational symmetry, e.g. at least one of the mirrors is warped, tilted or decentered with respect to the other elements
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 17/086 wherein the system is made of a single block of optical material, e.g. solid catadioptric systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/011 comprising device for correcting geometrical aberrations, distortion
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0116 comprising devices for correcting chromatic aberration
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0132 comprising binocular systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0178 Eyeglass type eyeglass details G02C
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0172 characterised by optical features

Abstract

The present invention is an optical apparatus, e.g. an image display apparatus, which enables observation of a clear image at a wide field angle with substantially no reduction in the brightness of the observation image, and which is extremely small in size and light in weight and hence unlikely to cause the observer to be fatigued. The optical apparatus has an image display device (6), and an ocular optical system (7) for leading an image of the image display device (6) to an observer'"'"'s eyeball (1). The ocular optical system (7) includes, in order from the image side, a third surface (5) which forms an entrance surface, a first surface (3) which forms both a reflecting surface and an exit surface, and a second surface (4) which forms a reflecting surface. The first to third surfaces (3 to 5) are integrally formed with a medium put therebetween which has a refractive index larger than 1. A bundle of light rays emitted from the image display device (6) enters the ocular optical system (7) while being refracted by the third surface (5) and is internally reflected by the first surface (3) and reflected by the second surface (4). Then, the ray bundle is incident on the first surface (3) again and refracted thereby so as to be projected into the observer'"'"'s eyeball with the observer'"'"'s iris position or eyeball rolling center as the exit pupil (1).

Claims

1. An image-forming optical system which forms an image of an object,

said image-forming optical system comprising at least one prism member,

wherein said prism member has a first surface and a second surface, which face each other across a medium having a refractive index (n) larger than 1 (n>

1), so that light rays entering said prism member from an object side thereof are reflected at least twice in said prism member,

wherein both said first surface and said second surface are curved surface configurations, and at least one of the curved surface configurations is formed from a rotationally asymmetric curved surface.

2. An image-forming optical system according to claim 1, wherein said prism member further has a third surface which faces said first surface and second surface across said medium.

3. An image-forming optical system according to claim 2, wherein said prism member is arranged such that both said first surface and said second surface have a reflecting action, and said third surface has a transmitting action.

4. An image-forming optical system according to claim 3, wherein said first surface of said prism member has both a transmitting action and a reflecting action.

5. An image-forming optical system according to claim 4, wherein said first surface of said prism member is formed from a totally reflecting surface so as to have said transmitting action and reflecting action.

6. An image-forming optical system according to claim 4, wherein said prism member is arranged such that light from the object enters said prism member by passing through said first surface and is reflected by said second surface and further reflected by said first surface, and the reflected light exits from said prism member by passing through said third surface.

7. An image-forming optical system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein said rotationally asymmetric curved surface is formed from a configuration having an aberration correcting action to correct decentration aberrations caused by reflection in said prism member.

8. An image-forming optical system according to claim 7, wherein said second surface is formed from said rotationally asymmetric curved surface.

9. An image-forming optical system according to claim 7, wherein said first surface is formed from said rotationally asymmetric curved surface.

10. An image-forming optical system according to claim 7, wherein said third surface is formed from said rotationally asymmetric curved surface.

11. An image-forming optical system according to claim 7, wherein said prism member is provided with a mirror coating so as to have a reflecting action.

12. An image-forming optical system according to claim 7, wherein said first surface is formed from a configuration having a concave surface directed toward the object.

13. An image-forming optical system according to claim 7, wherein said second surface is formed from a configuration having a concave surface directed toward said medium.

14. An image-forming optical system according to claim 7, further comprising a lens disposed closer to the object than said prism member.

15. An image-forming optical system according to claim 7, further comprising an aperture stop, wherein said prism member is disposed between said aperture stop and said object image.

16. An image-forming optical system according to claim 7, wherein a field angle in a horizontal direction of said prism member is different from a field angle in a vertical direction thereof.

17. An image-forming optical system according to claim 16, wherein the field angle in the horizontal direction of said prism member is larger than the field angle in the vertical direction thereof.

18. A camera apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said image-forming optical system is disposed to perform image formation.

19. A camera apparatus according to claim 18, wherein a photographic optical system and a finder optical system are disposed separately from each other.

20. A camera apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said image-forming optical system is disposed in said finder optical system.

21. A camera apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said finder optical system includes, in order from an object side thereof, said image-forming optical system;

an image erecting optical system for erecting the object image formed by said image-forming optical system; and

an ocular optical system for observing said object image.

22. An image-forming optical system according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein said first surface is formed from a rotationally asymmetric curved surface having an aberration correcting action to correct decentration aberrations caused by reflection in said prism member, so that light from the object is subjected to said aberration correcting action when passing through said first surface and is also subjected to said aberration correcting action when reflected by said first surface, whereby double effect is produced by one surface.

23. An ocular optical system arranged to lead an image formed on an image plane to an observer'"'"'s eyeball,

said ocular optical system comprising at least one prism member,

wherein said prism member has a first surface and a second surface, which face each other across a medium having a refractive index (n) larger than 1 (n>

1), so that light rays entering said prism member from an image side thereof are reflected at least twice in said prism member,

wherein both said first surface and said second surface are curved surface configurations, and at least one of the curved surface configurations is formed from a rotationally asymmetric curved surface.

24. An ocular optical system according to claim 23, wherein said prism member further has a third surface which faces said first surface and second surface across said medium.

25. An ocular optical system according to claim 24, wherein said prism member is arranged such that both said first surface and said second surface have a reflecting action, and said third surface has a transmitting action.

26. An ocular optical system according to claim 25, wherein said first surface of said prism member has both a transmitting action and a reflecting action.

27. An ocular optical system according to claim 26, wherein said prism member is arranged such that light from said image enters said prism member by passing through said third surface and is reflected by said first surface and further reflected by said second surface, and the reflected light exits from said prism member by passing through said first surface.

28. An ocular optical system according to claim 26, wherein said first surface of said prism member is formed from a totally reflecting surface so as to have both said transmitting action and reflecting action.

29. An ocular optical system according to any one of claims 26 to 28, wherein said first surface is formed from a rotationally asymmetric curved surface having an aberration correcting action to correct decentration aberrations caused by reflection in said prism member, so that light from said image is subjected to said aberration correcting action when passing through said first surface and is also subjected to said aberration correcting action when reflected by said first surface, whereby double effect is produced by one surface.

30. An ocular optical system according to any one of claims 24 to 26, wherein said rotationally asymmetric curved surface is formed from a configuration having an aberration correcting action to correct decentration aberrations caused by reflection in said prism member.

31. An ocular optical system according to claim 30, wherein said second surface is formed from said rotationally asymmetric curved surface.

32. An ocular optical system according to claim 30, wherein said first surface is formed from said rotationally asymmetric curved surface.

33. An ocular optical system according to claim 30, wherein said third surface is formed from said rotationally asymmetric curved surface.

34. An ocular optical system according to claim 30, wherein said first surface is formed from a configuration having a concave surface directed toward the observer'"'"'s eyeball.

35. An ocular optical system according to claim 30, wherein said second surface is formed from a configuration having a concave surface directed toward said medium.

36. An ocular optical system according to claim 30, wherein a field angle in a horizontal direction of said prism member is different from a field angle in a vertical direction thereof.

37. An ocular optical system according to claim 36, wherein the field angle in the horizontal direction of said prism member is larger than the field angle in the vertical direction thereof.

38. An ocular optical system according to claim 24, wherein said prism member is provided with a mirror coating so as to have a reflecting action.

39. In a finder optical system comprising an objective optical system for forming an object image;

an image erecting optical system for erecting said object image; and

an ocular optical system for observing said object image;

the improvement which comprises at least one prism member,

wherein said prism member has two surfaces having a reflecting action to reflect the image in said prism member, and two surfaces having a transmitting action to transmit light, and

wherein said prism member has at least one rotationally asymmetric curved surface.

40. A finder optical system according to claim 39, wherein said prism member is arranged such that one of said surfaces having a reflecting surface and one of said surfaces having a transmitting action are formed from an identical surface.

41. A camera apparatus according to which has said finder optical system, claim 39 or 40.

42. A camera apparatus according to claim 41, which has a photographic optical system provided separately from said finder optical system.