Patent ID: 8305429

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus characterized by comprising: (A) an image pickup lens; (B) a microlens array section where light passing through the image pickup lens enters; and (C) an image pickup device sensing light emitted from the microlens array section, wherein the focal length of each of microlenses constituting the microlens array section is variable in response to an applied voltage, and wherein the image pickup is performed in a first image pickup mode and a second image pickup mode, at the time of image pickup in the first image pickup mode, the focal length of each of the microlenses constituting the microlens array section becomes infinite, thereby an image by the image pickup lens is formed on the image pickup device, and at the time of image pickup in the second image pickup mode, an image by the image pickup lens is formed on the microlenses, and the focal length of each of the microlenses becomes a finite value, thereby the image by the image pickup lens formed on the microlenses is projected on the image pickup device.