JP5914982B2 - Projection device, flash device, and camera - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a projection device for automatic focus detection, a flash device using the same, and a camera.

  Conventionally, a projection device (hereinafter also referred to as an auxiliary light projection device) used for automatic focus detection of camera photography projects a slit-like striped pattern onto a subject when the subject is dark or has no contrast. . The pattern is then detected by the camera and automatic focus detection is performed. In recent years, the detection area for automatic focus detection has expanded. For this reason, the auxiliary light projection device uses a focus detection pattern that can automatically detect a focus in a wider range by further dividing and projecting a striped pattern used for automatic focus detection (Patent Document 1). . The striped pattern is formed by light transmitted through the transparent portion by forming a transparent portion and an opaque portion by the electrode pattern of the LED.

JP 2010-8589 A

  The prior art has advantages such as a reduction in the amount of light and a longer projection distance to the subject as compared with a projection apparatus in which an optical system having a film pattern is disposed in front of the LED. However, an LED having an electrode pattern has a disadvantage that its manufacture is special and its manufacturing cost is high.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an auxiliary light projection device, a flash device, and a camera that can increase the projection distance to a subject at a low cost.

In order to achieve the above goal, a projection apparatus according to the present invention is a projection apparatus that projects light onto a subject imaged by a camera, wherein the light emitting section emits the light and the light emitting section emits light. A projection optical system for separating the projected light into a plurality of lights traveling in different directions and projecting the light onto the subject, and the projection optical system projects the light reflected and projected on the subject to the focus of the camera. The light is separated into the plurality of lights in a direction incident on a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a first direction of the detection unit and a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a second direction different from the first direction. Further, the centers of the lights reflected by the plurality of subjects are arranged apart from each other, and a light and dark pattern is generated in the first direction and the second direction .

Further, the projection optical system includes an optical member having a plurality of inclined surfaces that adjust the traveling direction of the plurality of separated lights. In this case, a plurality of separated light traveling directions are adjusted on a plurality of inclined surfaces of the optical member, and a plurality of light beams projected and reflected on the subject are arranged in a first direction of the focus detection unit of the camera. And a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in the second direction.

Further, the one light emitting unit emits a substantially circular spot light, and the substantially circular spot light is separated into a plurality of substantially circular spot lights traveling in different directions by the optical member and projected onto the subject. The plurality of substantially circular spot lights projected and reflected on the subject are incident on the plurality of light receiving elements arranged in the first direction and the plurality of light receiving elements arranged in the second direction of the focus detection unit of the camera.
  In this case, the plurality of substantially circular spot lights projected and reflected on the subject are aligned without gaps, and in the second direction with the plurality of light receiving elements arranged in the first direction of the focus detection unit of the camera. The light enters a plurality of light receiving elements arranged side by side.
  In addition to this, a plurality of lines arranged in the first direction of the focus detection unit of the camera in a state where gaps are arranged between the plurality of substantially circular spot lights projected and reflected on the subject. The light is incident on a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in the second direction with the light receiving elements.
  Furthermore, in a state where a part of the plurality of substantially circular spot lights projected and reflected on the subject are overlapped and arranged, a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a first direction of the focus detection unit of the camera and a second The light enters a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in the direction.

The flash device of the present invention is a flash device that emits flash light according to an operation instruction from a camera, and is equipped with any of the above-described projection devices.

The camera of the present invention is equipped with any of the above-described projection devices.

  In the present invention, since the focus detection pattern is generated by providing the light emitting section that emits dot-like light, the pattern can be produced at low cost. Moreover, since it is dot-shaped light, the light use efficiency is high, and therefore the projection distance to the subject can be increased.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the autofocus camera provided with the auxiliary light projection apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the outline of an auxiliary light projector. It is sectional drawing which shows a light emission part. It is explanatory drawing which shows arrangement | positioning of the line sensor provided in the light-receiving surface of a focus detection part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the pattern of the spot light projected on a line sensor. It is explanatory drawing which shows an example of a focus detection part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the illumination intensity on a line sensor. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example which provided two auxiliary light projection parts. It is a perspective view which shows the outline of the auxiliary light projection part of the example demonstrated in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which drew typically the pattern which synthesize | combined and projected the pattern disperse | distributed to the horizontal direction and the pattern disperse | distributed to the vertical direction. It is explanatory drawing which shows the illumination intensity on the line sensor of the example demonstrated in FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the outline of the auxiliary light projection part of the example which projects a hollow dot-shaped spot light. It is explanatory drawing which shows the pattern of the spot light projected on the line sensor of the example demonstrated in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the illumination intensity on the line sensor of the example demonstrated in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the illumination intensity on the line sensor of another example which accumulated the spot light demonstrated in FIG. FIGS. 13A and 13B show a light emitting portion of the example described in FIG. 12, where FIG. 12A is a front view and FIG. 12B is a cross-sectional view. It is a front view which shows the example using the light emission unit incorporating four light emission parts demonstrated in FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the light emission unit demonstrated in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows other arrangement | positioning of the line sensor provided in the light-receiving surface of a focus detection part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the group pattern which carried out the spectroscopy of the vertical direction so that a part of overlapped dot-shaped pattern might overlap. It is explanatory drawing which shows the state which disperse | distributed the group pattern to the vertical and horizontal direction, and projected the pattern for focus detection. (A) is explanatory drawing which shows the group pattern which carried out the spectroscopy of the horizontal direction so that a part of overlapped dot-shaped pattern might overlap, (B) has shown the illumination intensity distribution on the line sensor of a group pattern. It is a front view which shows the other example using the light emission unit incorporating the some light emission part from which light emission area differs. It is a perspective view which shows the light emission unit demonstrated in FIG. FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram showing a set pattern obtained by separating the hollow dot-like pattern emitted from the light emitting unit described in FIG. 23 only in the vertical direction. FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram showing a set pattern obtained by separating a hollow dot-like pattern emitted from the light emitting unit described in FIG. 23 only in the horizontal direction. FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram showing a set pattern obtained by separating the hollow dot-like pattern emitted from the light emitting unit described in FIG. 23 in the horizontal and vertical directions.

  The auxiliary light projection apparatus according to the present invention will be described as an example incorporated in an autofocus camera. As shown in FIG. 1, the autofocus camera 10 includes a photographing lens 11, a main mirror 12, a sub mirror 13, a shutter 14, an image sensor 15, an auxiliary light projection unit 16, a determination unit 17, a focus detection unit 18, a control unit 19, A finder optical system 20 and a lens driving unit 21 are provided.

  The light reflected from the subject (subject light) enters the main mirror 12 through the photographing lens 11. The main mirror 12 splits the subject light into the finder optical system 20 and the focus detection unit 18. The focus detection unit 18 receives the subject light on the light receiving surface 18 a, and sends information related to the luminance or contrast of the subject light to the control unit 19 and the determination unit 17. Based on the information, the control unit 19 controls the lens driving unit 21 to move the photographing lens 11 in the direction of the photographing optical axis 23 to perform focusing.

  On the other hand, when the determination unit 17 determines that the luminance or contrast of the subject light is low, the determination unit 17 operates the auxiliary light projection unit 16 to project the auxiliary light onto the subject. The reflected auxiliary light reflected from the subject passes through the imaging lens 11 and the main mirror 12 in this order, is split by the sub mirror 13, and enters the light receiving surface 18 a provided in the focus detection unit 18. The focus detection unit 18 detects information on the brightness or contrast of the reflected auxiliary light and sends it to the control unit 19. As described above, the control unit 19 controls the lens driving unit 21 based on the information to move the photographing lens 11 to the in-focus position. The control unit 19 moves the photographic lens 11 to the in-focus position, then moves the main mirror 12 to the flip-up position for retracting from the photographic optical path, and then opens and closes the shutter 14 to open the subject image on the image sensor 15. Make an image.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the auxiliary light projection unit 16 includes a light emitting unit 24, a projection lens 25, and a spectroscopic prism (optical member) 26. As shown in detail in FIG. 3, the light emitting unit 24 includes an LED chip 28 mounted on a substrate 27, an encapsulating resin 29, and a mask member 30. The LED chip 28 has a rectangular shape, a rectangular shape, or the like, and emits white light into a surface. The encapsulating resin 29 is a lens layer made of a transparent resin so as to cover the LED chip 28, and imparts desired light distribution characteristics to the light emitted from the LED chip 28.

  The mask member 30 is a copper pattern attached on the encapsulating resin 29. The copper pattern is composed of a circular transparent portion 30a formed at the center position and an opaque portion (mask portion) 30b that covers other than the transparent portion 30a. Thereby, in the light emitting part 24, the spot of the light emitted from the light emitting surface 24a becomes substantially circular. The substantially circular spot light has a characteristic that the center has a strong peak illuminance and the illuminance decreases toward the periphery. The projection lens 25 condenses the circular spot light emitted from the light emitting unit 24, and projects the condensed circular spot light into a plurality of light beams through the spectral prism 26 toward the subject.

  The spectroscopic prism 26 has a plurality of inclined surfaces for projecting and spotting the spot light in the vertical and horizontal directions of the field of view. As a result, the circular spot light is projected onto a plurality of predetermined focus detection areas 31 so as to be arranged densely (without a gap) on a straight line. The focus detection area 31 corresponds to a predetermined focus area in the photographing field of view, and the focus area is displayed with a “[]” mark in the finder field of view as shown in FIG.

  The light receiving surface 18a has a total of five distance measuring sensors including a center distance measuring sensor 32, upper and lower distance measuring sensors 33 and 34, and left and right distance measuring sensors 35 and 36 at positions corresponding to the respective focus detection areas 31. doing. The center distance measuring sensor 32 is a cross sensor in which line sensors are combined in a cross shape, the vertical distance measuring sensors 33 and 34 are line sensors along the longitudinal direction, and the left and right distance measuring sensors 35 and 36 are longitudinal in the longitudinal direction. Each line sensor is used.

  On the distance measuring sensors 32 to 36, as shown in FIG. 5, the circular spot light 37 is densely arranged (without a gap) and arranged in a straight line along the longitudinal direction of the distance measuring sensors 32 to 36. Projected in a pattern of columns. The dot row pattern includes a horizontal dot pattern 38 and a vertical dot pattern 39. FIG. 5 shows a focus detection pattern when the photographic lens is zoomed to the wide end. This focus detection pattern is projected to cover the range of the distance measuring sensors 32 to 36 even at other focal lengths, for example, at the telephoto end. The dot row pattern may have a slight gap between the spot lights 37. Furthermore, a part may overlap.

  The focus detection unit 18 performs focus detection by a phase difference method, for example, as shown in FIG. A reference numeral 40 shown in the figure is a scheduled imaging surface of the photographic lens 11 equivalent to an imaging surface, and a reference numeral 41 is related to a re-imaging optical system including a condenser lens 42 and a pair of re-imaging lenses 43 and 44. The plane is conjugate with the planned imaging plane.

  The front pin image A, the focused image B, and the rear pin image C formed by the photographing lens 11 are respectively converted into the first images A1, B1, C1, and the like by the condenser lens 42 and the pair of re-imaging lenses 43 and 44, respectively. Re-imaged as second images A2, B2, C2. The distance between the first images A1, B1, and C1 and the second images A2, B2, and C2 varies depending on the focus adjustment state of the photographing lens 11.

  The light receiving surface 18a is arranged at or near the planned imaging surface 41, and based on the output, both the first image A1, B1, C1 and the second image A2, B2, C2 are best matched. The focus adjustment state of the photographic lens 11 can be detected by obtaining the image interval. Reference numeral 45 denotes an aperture mask for forming a pair of aperture openings just before the re-imaging lenses 43 and 44.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the row dot pattern projected on the distance measuring sensor 33 has a light amount that is stronger toward the center of the circular spot light 37 and weaker toward the periphery. Therefore, the distance measuring sensor 33 can detect one peak illuminance 46 having high illuminance from the center position of each spot light 37, and can detect a plurality of peak illuminances 46 at a predetermined interval. . For this reason, detection accuracy can be improved.

  In the above embodiment, the auxiliary light projection device is described as an example incorporated in the autofocus camera 10, but may be incorporated in a flash device such as an external flash.

  In the above embodiment, one spot light 37 is split into a plurality of beams in the vertical and horizontal directions by one spectroscopic prism 26. However, as shown in FIG. 48 may be provided. In this case, one auxiliary light projection unit 47 includes a light emitting unit (first light emitting unit) 24, a projection lens 25, and a vertical spectral prism (vertical spectroscopic optical member) 49 that splits light in the vertical direction, and the other auxiliary light. The projection unit 48 is provided with a light emitting unit (second light emitting unit) 24, a projection lens 25, and a horizontal spectral prism (horizontal spectroscopic optical member) 50 that splits in the horizontal direction, and the spot light 37 is vertically and horizontally oriented. It is preferable to divide the function of spectroscopic analysis. The light emitting unit 24 has the same configuration. On the subject surface, these spot lights 37 are combined and projected as described with reference to FIG. In this case, by projecting the pattern images projected from the auxiliary light projection units 47 and 48 onto the subject so as not to cross each other, the spectral number of the spectroscopic prisms 49 and 50 can be reduced, and for a wide range. Since spot light can be projected, it is preferable. According to this, since the two light emitting units 24 are used, it is possible to improve the illuminance on the surface of the distance measuring sensor.

  In the above embodiment, the light emitting unit 24 that generates the circular spot light 37 is used. However, as shown in FIG. 9, light emitting units 51 and 52 that generate spot light having a rectangular outline may be used. Each of the light emitting units 51 and 52 is fixed in a posture in which diagonal lines are horizontally aligned, and projects a substantially square spot light. The first auxiliary light projection unit 53 including the light emitting unit 51 is provided with a horizontal spectral prism 50, and the second auxiliary light projection unit 54 including the light emitting unit 52 is provided with a vertical spectral prism 49. The light emitting units 51 and 52 have the same configuration.

  The pair of projection lenses 25 described in FIG. 9 is provided as a variable focal length lens 25 so that the focal lengths of the pair of projection lenses 25 are changed synchronously according to the subject distance obtained from the distance measuring mechanism. It may be configured. In this case, it is preferable to change the projection lens 25 so that the focal length of the projection lens 25 increases as the subject distance increases, because the projection magnification of the dot-like light pattern decreases on the distance measuring sensor surface. Further, the focal length of the pair of projection lenses 25 may be changed in synchronization according to the focal length of the photographing lens 11 described in FIG. In this case, if the focal length of the projection lens 25 is increased in response to an increase in the focal length of the photographic lens 11, the projection magnification of the dot-like light pattern is reduced on the distance measuring sensor surface. It is.

As shown in FIG. 10A , the horizontal spectroscopic prism 50 splits square spot lights 55 so that they are closely arranged in the horizontal direction, and a plurality of pattern rows 56 that are split in the horizontal direction are separated by a predetermined distance in the vertical direction. Spectroscopy into rows, for example 3 rows. As shown in FIG. 10B , the vertical spectroscopic prism 49 splits the square spot lights 55 so that they are closely arranged in the vertical direction, and vertically divides the vertical pattern column 57 into a plurality of rows in the vertical direction, for example, Spectroscopy into 3 rows. As shown in FIG. 10C, on the cross range sensor 32 and the up / down / left / right range sensors 33 to 36, there are three horizontal pattern columns 56 and three vertical pattern columns 57 in the longitudinal direction of the sensor. Projected side by side closely.

  As shown in FIG. 11, the spot light 55 has a peak illuminance 58 at the center, and the illuminance decreases toward the periphery. Since the pattern array of such spot lights 55 is an array arranged on a diagonal line compared to an array in which square sides are aligned, the difference between the high illuminance area and the low illuminance area becomes large. Detection accuracy can be increased. The spot light 55 may have a square shape such as a rhombus (rhombic shape) and a parallelogram (long rhomboid shape).

  A pair of light emitting portions 60 shown in FIG. 12 has a hollow dot shape formed by a copper pattern having an opaque portion 60a provided in a circle at the center of the outline square of the light emitting surface and a transparent portion 60b provided in other regions. Generate spot light. The transparent part 60b has a larger area than the opaque part 60a. As a result, the spot light emitted from the light emitting unit 60 has a hollow dot shape having a substantially circular light shielding region 65 at the center of the outline square. On the cross range sensor 32 and the vertical range sensors 33 to 36, as shown in FIG. 13, three horizontal pattern columns 62 and vertical pattern columns 63 are projected closely in the longitudinal direction of the sensor. The FIG. 13 shows a focus detection pattern when the photographic lens is zoomed to the wide end. This focus detection pattern is projected to cover the range of the distance measuring sensors 32 to 36 even at other focal lengths, for example, at the telephoto end.

  As shown in FIG. 14, the spot light 64 has a peak illuminance 67 at the center between the circular light shielding region 65 and the rectangular corner 66, and has a characteristic that the illuminance decreases from here to the periphery. Since the spot light 64 having the hollow dot shape can detect two peak illuminances 67 on both sides of the light shielding region 65, compared with a simple dot shape, the detection accuracy can be further improved.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 15, the spotlight 64 with the hollow dot shape may be spectrally separated by a spectroscopic prism so as to form a pattern that is closely arranged so that a part of the adjacent portions overlap each other. According to this, since the corner portion 66 and the light shielding region 65 are overlapped regions, the center of the overlap region is the peak illuminance 68. Since the spectral illuminances overlap each other, the illuminance increases, and the difference from the low illuminance region can be increased.

  It should be noted that the outline of the hollow dot-shaped spot light 64 may be a circle, a diamond, or a polygon. Moreover, as a hollow shape, it is good also as shapes, such as a square, a rhombus, or an ellipse.

  As described above, as the light emitting unit 60, in addition to the structure in which the spotted light is generated by attaching the spotted dot copper pattern to the light emitting surface, the spotted spotlight is created by the electrode pattern of the LED chip. May be. In this case, as shown in FIG. 16, an electrode pattern 70 is formed on a transparent substrate 69 having a square outline. In the electrode pattern 70, a region without an electrode is a transparent portion 70a, and an electrode region is an opaque portion 70b.

  The opaque part 70b is formed in a circular shape in the center of the contour square. The LED chip 73 is mounted on one surface of the electrode pattern 70 opposite to the light emitting surface 72, and the anard terminal 74 is provided on the opaque portion 70 b through the through hole 71 with solder 75 such as silver paste. It is connected. Although not shown, the cathode terminal of the LED chip 73 is connected to a cathode electrode provided on the opaque portion 70 b by a bonding wire 76. The solder 75 is arranged in conformity with the contour of the opaque portion 70b, and the planar projection contour is circular. For this reason, the light emitted from the light emitting surface 72 becomes spot light in the form of a hollow dot having a circular light shielding region 65 in a square.

  By the way, on the distance measuring sensor, the detection accuracy is higher when the plurality of spot lights are projected so as to overlap each other. In this case, in order to perform the spectral separation so as to overlap, there is a disadvantage that the number of divisions of the spectral prism increases and the amount of light decreases. Therefore, in FIGS. 17 and 18, the light emitting unit 80 to which the four light emitting units 60 are integrally attached is used.

  The light emitting unit 80 has a configuration in which the light emitting unit 60 is attached to each corner of the rectangular mounting plate 81, and the diagonal line of the mounting plate 81 is fixed in a posture along the horizontal and vertical directions. The light emitting unit 60 is the same as that described with reference to FIG. 12, and emits a spot light 64 having a circular light shielding region 65 in the outline square. The light emitting unit 60 is also fixed to the mounting plate 81 in a posture in which the diagonal line of the outline square is horizontal and vertical.

  As shown in FIG. 19, the light receiving surface 18 a has nine distance measuring sensors 84 to 92. The center distance sensor 84 is a cross sensor in which line sensors are combined into a cross, the vertical distance sensors 85 and 86 are line sensors whose longitudinal directions are aligned horizontally, and the left and right distance sensors 87 to 89 and 90 to 92 are longitudinal. Each uses a line sensor that is vertically aligned.

  The four light emitting units 60 project a four-dot pattern in which four hollow spot-shaped spot lights 64 are arranged in the cross direction. As shown in FIG. 20, the vertical spectroscopic prism divides four 4-dot patterns 93 in the vertical direction so as to partially overlap each other, and a set of four sets of patterns 94 vertically as shown in FIG. The light is divided into three rows in the direction and projected onto the upper lateral sensor 85, the center cross sensor 84, and the lower lateral sensor 86 so as to be arranged without gaps.

  As shown in FIG. 22A, the horizontal split prism also divides four 4-dot patterns 93 in the horizontal direction so as to partially overlap each other, and displays a set of four sets 96 of patterns. As shown in FIG. 21, six lines are dispersed in the horizontal direction, and projected onto a total of six vertical sensors 87 to 92 arranged three each on the left and right sides without gaps.

  FIG. 21 shows a focus detection pattern when the photographic lens is zoomed to the wide end. This focus detection pattern is projected so as to cover the range of the sensors 84 to 92 even at other focal lengths, for example, at the telephoto end.

  As shown in FIG. 22A, the set pattern 96 is overlapped so as to increase at the center in the longitudinal direction of the vertical sensor 85 and decrease at the periphery thereof. As shown in FIG. 4B, the illuminance on the vertical sensor 85 is obtained with two peak illuminances 97 at the center and second peak illuminance 98 on both sides thereof. Detection accuracy can be increased by alternately creating large and small peaks.

  The state shown in FIG. 21 shows the zoom position at the wide end. When the photographing lens 11 is zoomed to the telephoto side, the focus detection projection irradiated on the distance measuring sensor with the center as a reference. The pattern is enlarged. Even in this case, a set of four patterns 94 and 96 are arranged in the vertical and horizontal directions without any gaps, and therefore can be reliably detected.

  The light emitting unit 100 shown in FIGS. 23 and 24 is integrally formed with six rectangular light emitting units 101 to 106. The light emitting units 101 to 106 include a vertical light emitting unit row 107 in which two light emitting units 101 and 102 having a large light emitting area are arranged vertically (vertical), and four light emitting units having a light emitting area smaller than that of the light emitting units 101 and 102. It consists of a horizontal light emitting unit row 108 in which the units 103 to 106 are arranged horizontally (horizontally).

  Each of the light emitting units 101 to 106 has a light emitting region (hatched region) 109 having a rectangular outline, and is mounted on a substrate 99 having a square shape with one diagonal line aligned horizontally.

  In each of the light emitting portions 101 and 102 of the vertical light emitting portion row 107, a light shielding region (cross hatched region) 110 with respect to the light emitting region 109 is formed in a circle at five positions of the fifth eye of the dice. The area of the central light shielding region 110b is larger than that of the four surrounding light shielding regions 110a.

  In each of the light emitting units 103 to 106 of the horizontal light emitting unit row 108, a light shielding region (cross-hatched region) 112 is formed in a circular shape at one center with respect to a light emitting region (hatched region) 111. The horizontal light emitting unit row 108 is arranged so as to intersect between the two light emitting units 101 and 102 constituting the vertical light emitting unit row 107. Of course, it goes without saying that each of the light emitting units 101 to 106 has a larger area of the light emitting regions 109 and 111 than the light shielding regions 110 and 112.

  In this way, the pattern 113 in which the dot-shaped light columns having different sizes are combined is split by the vertical spectroscopic prism 49 described with reference to FIG. 9 so as to partially overlap in the vertical direction. In the example shown in FIG. 25, the pattern 113 is arranged in the vertical direction, and dot-like light emitted from the lower light-emitting part 102 constituting the vertical light-emitting part row 107 and dot-like light emitted from the upper light-emitting part 101 are used. The vertical pattern column 114 is formed by using, for example, a vertical spectral prism 49 that splits light in 5 rows and 1 column so that the light beams overlap.

  Further, the pattern 113 in which the dot-like light emitted from the light emitting unit 100 is combined is split by the horizontal spectral prism 50 described with reference to FIG. 9 so as to partially overlap in the horizontal direction. In the example shown in FIG. 26, the pattern 113 is formed in the shape of dots emitted from two light emitting units on the right or left of the four light emitting units 103 to 106 constituting the horizontal light emitting unit array 108 in the horizontal direction. In order to overlap the light, for example, the horizontal pattern prism 115 is formed by using the horizontal spectroscopic prism 50 that splits four rows and five rows on both sides of the center.

  Thereby, on the cross range sensor 116 and the up / down / left / right range sensors 117 to 124, as shown in FIG. The arranged horizontal pattern rows 115 are projected closely in the longitudinal direction of the sensors 116 to 124.

  In addition, although the said embodiment demonstrated as the light emission unit which arranged the light emission part 2 vertically and 5 horizontally, it is not restricted to this in this invention, The number arrange | positioned vertically and horizontally should just be two or more. Further, the two directions in which the light emitting units are arranged are not limited to the vertical and horizontal directions, and may be, for example, oblique and vertical directions. Further, the direction in which the light emitting units are arranged is not limited to two directions, and may be three directions, that is, two directions that cross obliquely and a vertical direction.

  In each of the above embodiments, a spectral prism is used, but a fly-eye lens or the like may be used instead of the spectral prism. Further, the line sensors other than the center provided on the light receiving surface 18a may be arranged so that the longitudinal direction is substantially parallel to the diagonal line of the light receiving surface 18a. In this case, the spot light may be projected side by side along the longitudinal direction. Moreover, although white light LED was demonstrated, it is not limited to this, For example, it is also possible to employ | adopt red LED etc. which are hard to feel dazzling with respect to a human eye.

  Furthermore, the auxiliary light projection apparatus of the present invention can be applied not only to a digital camera but also to a photographic camera, a digital video camera, and the like. Furthermore, the configuration of the light emitting unit is not limited to the configuration described above, and can be changed as appropriate. Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be appropriately modified and changed within the scope of the present invention.

16, 47, 48, 53, 54 Auxiliary light projection unit 24, 51, 52, 60, 101-106 Light emitting unit 25 Projection lens 26 Spectral prism 37 Spot light 80, 100 Light emitting unit 94, 96 Set pattern

Claims (9)

A projection device that projects light onto a subject imaged by a camera,
One light-emitting unit that emits the light;
A projection optical system that separates the light emitted from the one light emitting unit into a plurality of lights traveling in different directions and projects the light onto the subject,
The projection optical system includes a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a first direction of a focus detection unit of the camera and a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a second direction different from the first direction. Separating the light into the plurality of lights in a direction incident on the element ;
A projection device that generates light and dark patterns in the first direction and the second direction, with the centers of the light beams reflected by the plurality of separated objects separated from each other . The projection device according to claim 1,
The projection optical system includes a projection device including an optical member having a plurality of inclined surfaces for adjusting a traveling direction of the separated plurality of lights. The projection apparatus according to claim 2, wherein
A plurality of light receiving elements in which the traveling directions of the separated light beams are adjusted by a plurality of inclined surfaces of the optical member, and the light projected and reflected on the subject is arranged in the first direction of the focus detection unit of the camera And a projection device that is incident on a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in the second direction. The projection apparatus according to claim 3.
The one light emitting unit emits a substantially circular spot light,
The substantially circular spot light is separated into a plurality of substantially circular spot lights traveling in different directions by the optical member and projected onto the subject,
The projection device in which the plurality of substantially circular spot lights projected and reflected on the subject are incident on a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a first direction and a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a second direction of the focus detection unit of the camera. . The projection apparatus according to claim 4, wherein
A plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a first direction and a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a second direction of the focus detection unit of the camera in a state where the plurality of substantially circular spot lights projected and reflected on the subject are arranged without gaps. A projection device that enters the light receiving element. The projection apparatus according to claim 4, wherein
A plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a first direction of the focus detection unit of the camera and a second one in a state where a gap is arranged between the plurality of substantially circular spot lights projected and reflected on the subject A projection device that enters a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a direction. The projection apparatus according to claim 4, wherein
A plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a first direction of the focus detection unit of the camera and a second direction in a state where a part of the plurality of substantially circular spot lights projected and reflected on the subject are overlapped and arranged. Projector that enters multiple light receiving elements. A flash device that flashes in response to an operation instruction from a camera,
A flash device equipped with the projection device according to claim 1.   A camera equipped with the projection apparatus according to claim 1.

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