Image pickup apparatus and image pickup apparatus system

Abstract

The present invention relates to a compact and low-cost image pickup apparatus capable of providing high-quality images comparable to silver halide photographs and also capable of obtaining photographic effects equivalent to those which are available for silver halide photographs, e.g. utilization of blurring. In the image pickup apparatus, an image of an object produced by an optical system is formed on an electronic image pickup device, thereby obtaining image information concerning the object. The image pickup device 20 is a device having a matrix or mosaic color filter array provided over a photoelectric conversion surface, and the electronic image pickup device 20 and the optical system 10 satisfy the conditions: (1) 6.2/{square root over ( )}N<P<21/{square root over ( )}N; (2) 3.8<N<20; (3) 3.4×P−25<N<20; and (4) 0<θ<1.3×P+4; where P is the pixel pitch (given in micrometers) of the image pickup device; N is the number of pixels (given in million) of the image pickup device; and θ is the angle (°) at which the central ray of a light beam exiting from the optical system or a ray passing through the center of the stop is incident on the image pickup device at the maximum image height.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.