Patent ID: 8419616

Claim:
An image pickup unit including a protection member and an optical reflection member, the image pickup unit comprising: the optical reflection member which refracts and reflects photographing light introduced from a front surface, by a reflection surface; a solid-state image pickup device which has a light receiving portion for receiving the refracted and reflected photographing light; the protection member configured to be surface-joined to and to protect at least an area of an effective reflection surface within the reflection surface by which the photographing light is refracted to be made incident on the light receiving portion; and a holding frame configured to include therein and hold the optical reflection member and the protection member; wherein the optical reflection member and the protection member have tapered surfaces formed by cutting corner portions of one side or both sides of the members, which portions are away from the solid-state image pickup device about an optical axis of the photographing light; and the holding frame has inner surfaces facing the tapered surfaces in parallel.