Active autofocusing type rangefinder optical system

• US 5,341,186 A
• Filed: 01/12/1993
• Issued: 08/23/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Olympus Optical Corporation Limited (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Olympus Optical Corporation Limited (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Kato, Shigeru
• Primary Examiner(s): ADAMS JR, RUSSELL E
• Application Number:
  US08/003,431
• Time in Patent Office: 588 Days
• Field of Search: 354/403, 354/162, 354/163, 354/165, 354/166
• US Class Current: 396/106
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 7/32 using active means, e.g. light emitter including both an active and a passive focus detecting device G02B7/285; using ultrasound G02B7/40

Abstract

The invention concerns an active autofocusing type rangefinder optical system that prevents a finder system and a light projection system from producing parallax and is capable of finding the distance of an object with high accuracy, in which an optical path-splitting means Bs is located somewhere in the optical path of the objective optical system thereof that is provided separately from a taking or photographic optical system, one of the optical path split by said splitting means being assigned to said finder optical system and the other to a range finding optical system, wherein a portion of the optical system located on the object side from said optical path-splitting means has a positive refracting power as a whole, a portion of the optical system extending from said optical path-splitting means to the intermediate image-forming surface of the finder optical system has a positive or negative refracting power as a whole, and a portion of the optical system located on the side of said range finding element from said optical path-splitting means.

Claims

1. An active autofocusing type rangefinder optical system for cameras, which is provided separately from a photo-taking optical system, and in which an optical path-splitting means is disposed in an optical path of an objective optical system of said rangefinder optical system, a finger optical system in one optical path split by said splitting means and a range finding optical system in another optical path split by said splitting means, wherein:

said range finding optical system includes a range finding element,

an optical system located on the object side from said optical path-splitting means has a positive refracting power as a whole,

an optical system extending from said optical path-splitting means to an intermediate image-forming surface of the finder optical system has one of a positive and negative refracting power as a whole, and

an optical system located on the side of said range finding element from said optical path-splitting means has a positive refracting power as a whole.

2. An active autofocusing type rangefinder optical system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the range finding element includes a light-emitting element, and a light receiving element is disposed in the finder optical system or in proximity thereto, the object to be photographed being irradiated with the light emitted from the light-emitting element, and the light reflected by the object being received by the light receiving element, so that distance to the object can be found.

3. An active autofocusing type rangefinder optical system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the optical path-splitting means is of such wavelength selectivity as to make a division between a visible range of light and an infrared range of light.

4. An active autofocusing type rangefinder optical system as claimed in claim 2, which conform to the following condition (1):

space="preserve" listing-type="equation">φ

/f.sub.8 >

0.3 . . . (1)

where φ

is the diameter of the maximum circle that encircles the final surface of said range finding optical system and f_B is the space between the final surface of said range finding optical system and a light-emitting surface of said light-emitting element.

5. An active autofocusing type rangefinder optical system as claimed in any one of claims 1-3, where said finder optical system includes an image-erecting system for inverting and reversing an intermediate image produced by the objective optical system.