Patent ID: 8077201

Claim:
A camera system for a motor vehicle, comprising: an optical system mounted to the motor vehicle in which incident radiation is guided to a radiation receiving unit, which is oriented facing a direction transversely related to a direction of travel of the motor vehicle, using at least one swivelable deflecting mirror mounted to a frontal area of the vehicle, the at least one swivelable deflecting mirror comprising a first mirror side suitable for deflecting incident radiation, and a second mirror side suitable for deflecting incident radiation, wherein the second mirror side exhibits a curvature shape that is different from a curvature shape of the first mirror side, and wherein the at least one swivelable deflecting mirror is swivelable in such a manner that incident radiation can be guided to the receiving unit by swiveling the deflecting mirror to selectively switch between the first and the second mirror sides, wherein the at least one swivelable deflecting mirror is configured to swivel about at least two planes of rotation, and wherein the axes for each of said planes of rotation pass through the swivelable deflecting mirror, and wherein further the at least one swivelable deflecting mirror swivels in one of the at least two planes of rotation across an angular range, limited to no more than about +/−15 degrees, in order to reflect radiation originating from different directions.