BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a photographic lens system and, more particularly, to a retrofocus-type wide-angle photographic lens system arranged to correct aberrations which become unfavourable when focusing on an object at a short distance.

2. Description of the Prior Art

As wide-angle photographic lens systems, retrofocus-type wide-angle lens systems having a negative lens group as a front lens group and a positive lens group as a rear lens group are widely used because of reasons that the back focal length can be made long, a flat image can be obtained over a wide field angle, and so forth. Due to the fact, however, that photographic lens systems are generally designed so that aberrations can be favourably corrected for aberrations object at an infinite distance, abberations become considerably unfavourable from the center of the field toward the marginal portion when the above-mentioned retrofocus-type lens system is focused on an object at a short distance by advancing the lens system as a whole in the same way as the case of focusing in general. In the above case, there is a tendency as described below when aberrations become unfavourable. That is, especially sagittal astigmatism is over-corrected, meridional astigmatism is remarkably over-corrected and spherical aberration is under-corrected. As correcting means for unfavourable aberrations which occur when the retrofocus-type lens system having the above-mentioned characteristics is focused on an object at a short distance, the following methods are known. One method is to divide the lens system into two groups and to focus by advancing the lens system as a whole by reducing the airspace between said two lens groups. Another method is to focus by moving a pre-determined lens in the lens system at the same time when the lens system as a whole is advanced. However, those lens systems for which the above-mentioned correcting means are adopted have disadvantages that the construction of the focusing mechanism becomes very complicated compared with the focusing mechanism of general lens systems and the outer diameter of the lens mount becomes large because said lens systems require both of the moving mechanism for advancing the lens system as a whole and mechanism for moving a part of lenses in the lens system cooperating with the former moving mechanism for advancing the lens system as a whole.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is, therefore, a principal object of the present invention to provide a retrofocus-type wide-angle photographic lens system having an airspace in said lens system and arranged to be focused on an object at a short distance and to correct aggravation of aberrations, which occurs when focusing, by moving the lens group in rear of said airspace (rear lens group) toward the lens group in front of said airspace (front lens group).

Besides, the content of the present invention is described below referring to FIG. 1 which is a figure for explaining the principle of the lens system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, numeral 1 designates a front negative lens group and numeral 2 designates a rear positive lens group. When photographing an object at a short distance, the front lens group 1 is kept fixed and only the rear lens group 2 is moved toward the front lens group for the purposes of focusing and correcting aggravation of aberrations which occurs in close-up photographing. Due to the fact that, in case of retrofocus-type wide-angle lens systems, aggravation of meridional astigmatism is large in close-up photographing, the position to change the airspace between lenses should be decided at such airspace where spherical aberration and sagittal astigmatism of the lens system when said airspace between lenses is reduced are scarcely aggravated compared with spherical aberration and sagittal astigmatism for an object at an infinite distance and, moreover, aggravation of meridional astigmatism can be corrected largely. The amount of aggravation of meridional astigmatism at the marginal portion becomes as follows. In this type of lens system, meridional astigmatism when focused on an object at a short distance is aggravated in the direction of over-correction. Therefore, if meridional astigmatism when focused on an object at a short distance is represented by reference symbol (AS_M)_CL and meridional astigmatism when focused on an object at an infinite distance is represented by reference symbol (AS_M).sub.∞, the above-mentioned aggravation is expressed as follows.

[(ASM)CL -(ASM).sub.∞]

besides, in the lens system according to the present invention, only the rear lens group is moved toward the front lens group, the airspace between the front and rear lens groups becomes smaller when focusing on an object at a short distance. Therefore, when the advancing amount of the rear lens group at that time is represented by a reference symbol Δ, the amount of change of said airspace becomes -Δ. When the amount of change of aberration corresponding to a unit amount of change of the airspace is called a coefficient of correction, the above-mentioned airspace to be reduced should be decided, in order to attain the object of the present invention, as an airspace at which coefficients of correction for spherical aberration and for sagittal astigmatism are small and the coefficient of correction for meridional astigmatism is large. Besides, as Δ is negative as described in the above, said airspace is decided so that the above-mentioned amount of aggravation of astigmatism [(AS_M)_CL -(AS_M).sub.∞] and above-mentioned coefficient of correction for meridional astigmatism will have the same plus or minus sign. Besides, it is desirable that said airspace is decided so that the quotient when the amount of aggravation of meridional astigmatism [(AS_M)_CL -(AS_M).sub.∞] is divided by the above-mentioned amount of change of airspace Δ becomes approximately equal to the above-mentioned coefficient of correction for meridional astigmatism.

In the following, the relation between the advancing amount of the rear lens group and the lens system as a whole is described. When the focal length of the front lens group is represented by reference symbol f₁, the focal length of the rear lens group is represented by reference symbol f₂, magnifications of the front and rear lens groups are represented by reference symbols β₁ and β₂, magnification of the lens system as a whole is represented by reference symbol β, principal points on front and rear sides of the front and rear lens groups are respectively represented by reference symbols H₁, H₁ ', H₂ and H₂ ', the object is represented by reference symbol O, the image focused by the front lens group is represented by reference symbol O' and the image of the object O focused by the lens system as a whole is represented by reference symbol O", the following formulas are obtained for the rear lens group based on the relation shown in FIG. 1.

l= b2 - a2 + H2 H2 '                   (1)

1/b2 = 1/a2 + 1/f2                          ( 2)

b2 /a2 = β2                            ( 3)

When the above formulas (1), (2) and (3) are differentiated and substituted, the following formula is obtained.

(dL/db2)= 1- (1/β2 2)                   (4)

In the same way, the following formulas are obtained for the front lens group.

1/b1 = 1/a1 + 1/f1                          ( 5)

b1 /a1 = β1                            ( 6)

Therefore, from formulas (5) and (6), the following formula is obtained.

(db1 /da1) )= β1 2                 ( 7)

As the lens system is focused by advancing the rear lens group, the following formula is obtained from the relation between amounts of change of O'H₂ and O'O" caused by change of the image focused by the front lens group when the distance from the object O to H₁ is changed.

-db1 = dL                                             (8)

from the above formulas (4), (7) and (8), the following formula is obtained. ##EQU1## When it is presumed that the rear lens group is advanced by Δ when the distance OH from the lens system to the object is changed by Δ_a, the following formula is obtained from the above formula (9). ##EQU2## Besides, by considering the case that the lens system as a whole is advanced, the relation between the advancing amount Δ_O at that time and the amount of change Δ_a of the distance to the object is shown by the following formula.

ΔO = -β2 Δa                ( 11)

When the ratio of the advancing amount when only the rear lens group is advanced and the advancing amount when the lens system as a whole is advanced is represented by reference symbol K, the following formula is obtained from formulas (10) and (11). ##EQU3## The fact that K becomes large means that Δ, i.e., the advancing amount of the rear lens group becomes large. Therefore, it is necessary to make the airspace to be changed a large space. However, when the airspaces between lenses is made large, the diameter of the front lens becomes large and distortion and lateral chromatic aberration for the infinite distance become unfavourable. By taking the above into consideration, it is desirable to select K as K≦ 3. That is, it is necessary to select as | β₂ | ≦ 0.82 from the formula (12).

For the wide-angle photographic lens system according to the present invention as described in the above, more concrete description is given below based on preferred embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a figure for explaining the principle of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B, 6A and 6B respectively show graphs illustrating conditions of aberrations of said first embodiment; and

FIGS. 7A, 7B, 8A, 8B, 9A and 9B respectively show graphs illustrating conditions of aberrations of said second embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments of the lens system according to the present invention are arranged as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 and their concrete numerical data are as shown below.

______________________________________Embodiment 1______________________________________f = 100r1 = 198.31     d1 = 24.59                 n2 = 1.6779                             ν1 = 55.33r2 = 368.14     d2 = 0.55r3 = 127.04     d3 = 8.20                 n2 = 1.7859                             ν2 = 44.24r4 = 63.55     d4 = Variabler5 = 110.68     d5 = 8.20                 n3 = 1.7859                             ν3 = 44.24r6 = 59.68     d6 = 10.87r7 = 113.39     d7 = 5.46                 n4 = 1.7859                             ν4 = 44.24r8 = 57.70     d8 = 9.72r9 = 161.60     d9 = 20.69                 n5 = 1.56732                             ν5 =  42.83r10 = -1360.89     d10 = 0.82r11 = 156.12     d11 = 5.46                 n6 = 1.6968                             ν6 = 55.62r12 = 47.27     d12 = 39.38                 n7 = 1.5927                             ν7 = 35.54r13 = 77.10     d13 = 8.74r14 = -133.68     d14 = 34.90                 n8 = 1.7859                             ν8 = 44.24r15 = -71.50     d15 = 5.46                 n9 = 1.84666                             ν9 = 23.88r16 = 368.68     d16 = 3.28r17 = -254.99     d17 = 14.59                 n10 = 1.618                             ν10 = 63.38r18 = -74.43     d18 = 0.82r19 = -578.40     d19 =  15.57                 n11 = 1.618                             ν11 = 63.38r20 = -110.25______________________________________

In the above, reference symbols r₁ through r₂₀ respectively represent radii of curvature of respective surfaces of lenses, reference symbols d₁ through d₁₉ respectively represent thicknesses of respective lenses and airspaces between lenses, reference symbols n₁ through n₁₁ respectively represent refractive indexes for d-line of respective lenses, and reference symbols ν₁ through ν₁₁ respectively represent Abbe's numbers of respective lenses.

______________________________________Embodiment 2______________________________________f = 100r1 = 569.68     d1 = 18.66                 n1 = 1.834                             ν1 = 37.19r2 = 1312.90     d2 = 1.10r3 = 172.20     d3 = 8.78                 n2 = 1.67                             ν2 = 57.33r4 = 69.51     d4 = 26.89r5 = 178.55     d5 = 8.67                 n3 = 1.67                             ν3 = 57.33r6 = 99.74     d6 = 23.27r7 = 426.56     d7 = 23.33                 n4 = 1.804                             ν4 = 46.57r8 = -2013.62     d8 = 1.10r9 = 106.36     d9 = 5.49                 n5 = 1.6968                             ν5 =  55.62r10 = 56.06     d10 = 9.93r11 = 149.21     d11 = 5.49                 n6 = 1.6968                             ν6 = 55.62r12 = 52.82     d12 = 45.39                 n7 = 1.5927                             ν7 = 35.24r13 = 2175.70     d13 = 5.49r14 = 873.97     d14 = 32.93                 n8 = 1.64                             ν8 = 60.25r15 = 75.30     d15 = 5.49                 n9 = 1.51454                             ν9 = 54.69r.sub. 16 = -108.45     d16 = Variabler17 = -186.60     d17 = 5.49                 n10 = 1.80518                             ν10 = 25.43r18 = 229.47     d18 = 5.49r19 = -5246.59     d19 = 13.72                 n.sub. 11 = 1.618                             ν11 = 63.38r20 = -98.06     d20 = 0.82r21 = -260.05     d21 = 12.35                 n12 = 1.618                             ν12 = 63.38r22 = -109.93______________________________________

In the above, reference symbols r₁ through r₂₂ respectively represent radii of curvature of respective surfaces of lenses, reference symbols d₁ through d₂₁ respectively represent thicknesses of respective lenses and airspaces between lenses, reference symbols n₁ through n₁₂ respectively represent refractive indexes of respective lenses for d-line, and reference symbols ν₁ through ν₁₂ respectively represent Abbe's numbers of respective lenses.

The embodiment 1 is arranged by deciding the airspace d₄ in the diverging lens group as the airspace to be changed. When the distance to the object is infinitely large, said airspace is d₄ = 35.10 and magnification of the rear lens group is β₂ = -0.455. When this lens system is focused on an object at a short distance and the distance to said object is 1.134 m (β= -0.088), said airspace is d₄ = 24.40.

The embodiment 2 is arranged by deciding the airspace d₁₆ in the converging lens group as the airspace to be changed. When the distance to the object is infinitely large, the value of said airspace is d₁₆ = 12.07 and magnification of the rear lens group is β₂ =- 0.456. When this lens system is focused on an object at a short distance and the distance to the object is 1.646 m (β = -0.058), said airspace is d₁₆ = 4.84.

Conditions of aberrations for the above-mentioned embodiment 1 are shown in FIGS. 4A, 4B, 5A, 5B, 6A and 6B. FIGS. 4A and 4B show aberrations when the distance to the object is infinitely large. FIGS. 5A and 5B show aberrations when the distance to the object is 1.134 m and the lens system is focused by advancing the lens system as a whole. FIGS. 6A and 6B show aberrations when the distance to the object is also 1.134 m but only the rear lens group is advanced for focusing. FIGS. 7A, 7B, 8A, 8B, 9A and 9B are related with the embodiment 2. FIGS. 7A and 7B show aberrations when the distance to the object is infinitely large, FIGS. 8A and 8B show aberrations when the distance to the object is 1.646 m and the lens system as a whole is advanced for focusing, and FIGS. 9A and 9B show aberrations when said distance is also 1.646 m but only the rear lens group is advanced for focusing.

As it is evident from the above aberration curves, lens systems shown by embodiments 1 and 2 which are designed according to the present invention cause almost no aggravation of spherical aberration or sagittal astigmatism even in case of close-up photographing.

Besides, meridional astigmatism, which was considerably aggravated as shown in FIG. 5B and FIG. 8B in case of the conventional method, is also corrected very favourably in case of the lens system according to the present invention as it is evident from FIG. 6B and FIG. 9B.