Stereoscopic image-taking lens apparatus, stereoscopic image-taking system and image-taking apparatus

A stereoscopic image-taking lens apparatus which is attachable to an image-taking apparatus provided with an image-pickup element and a function of automatically setting a white balance of a taken image within a predetermined set allowance, comprising:

• an optical system which forms right and left optical paths for guiding light from an object, which has entered said right and left optical paths, to said image-pickup element;
• a shutter which is changed over for guiding lights which have respectively entered said right and left optical paths to said image-pickup element;
• a control circuit which changes over said shutter so that lights from said right and left optical paths are alternately guided to said image-pickup element to allow said optical system to form in time sequence parallax images on said image-pickup element;
• and
• a communication circuit which performs communications with said image-taking apparatus;
• wherein the control circuit sends to said image-taking apparatus a signal for changing the set allowance of the white balance.

An image-taking apparatus comprising:

• an image-pickup element;
• an optical system which forms right and left optical paths for guiding light from an object, which has entered said right and left optical paths, to said image-pickup element;
• a shutter which is changed over for guiding lights which have respectively entered said right and left optical paths alternately to said image-pickup element;
• and
• a control circuit which changes over said shutter so that lights from said right and left optical paths are guided alternately to said image-pickup element to allow the optical system to form parallax images in time sequence on said image-pickup element at the time of 3D image-taking, and does not change over said shutter to allow said optical system to guide light incident from one of said right and left optical paths to said image-pickup element at the time of 2D image-taking;
• wherein said control circuit allows, at the time of 2D image-taking, an image-taking operation in which the charge-storage time of the image-pickup element is longer than the opening time of said shutter and the control circuit inhibits, at the time of 3D image-taking, an image-taking operation in which the charge-storage time of said image-pickup element is longer the opening time of said shutter.

An image-taking apparatus provided with the function of automatically setting the white balance of a taken image within the predetermined set allowance, comprising:

• an image-pickup element;
• an optical system which forms right and left optical paths for guiding light from an object, which has entered said right and left optical paths, to said image-pickup element;
• a shutter which is changed over for guiding lights which have respectively entered said right and left optical paths alternately to the image-pickup element;
• and
• a control circuit which changes over said shutter so that lights from said right and left optical paths are alternately guided to said image-pickup element to allow the optical system to form parallax images in time sequence on said image-pickup element at the time of 3D image-taking, and does not change over said shutter to allow the optical system to guide light incident from one of the right and left optical paths to said image-pickup element at the time of 2D image-taking;
• wherein said control circuit changes, at time of 3D image-taking, the set allowance of the white balance for time of 2D image-taking.