Optical low-pass filter and imaging devices using the same

• Main Authors: SEI, MASAFUMI, HONDA, MASAHIKO, WAKI, KENICHIRO, MASUDA, TAKASHI, KUBOTA, HIDETOSHI
• Format: Patent
• Language: Chinese; English
• Published: 16.08.2007
• Subjects: ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION

Provided is an optical low pass filter (2), for example, composed of a birefringent plate and so that a light beam separation width can be variably controlled, thereby changing the cut-off frequency in accordance with an imaging mode. The number of pixels of an imaging element (5) is set greater than the number of pixels corresponding to the animation display resolution. In a still image capturing mode, the light beam separation width can set narrower to directly use the resolution of the imaging element (5) and to suppress generation of a false color to a certain degree. On the other hand, in the animation capturing mode, by setting the light beam separation width wider, not only a high-frequency component corresponding to an unnecessary resolution component for an output image signal can be cut off, but also the suppression of false color can be performed strongly and sufficiently as compared to the still image capturing mode.