Patent ID: 7515177

Claim:
An image pickup apparatus capable of shooting a picture in a wide range comprising a plurality of adjacent image pickup units, wherein the fields of view of adjacent image pickup units within the image pickup apparatus overlap each other; wherein each image pickup unit comprises: a front lens; a lens group; and an image pickup device; wherein the lens group is positioned between the front lens and the image pickup device; wherein, within each image pickup unit, if a point at which a principal ray at an end of an angle of view is extended to cross an optical axis is defined as a viewpoint center, the front lens, the lens group, and the image pickup device are arranged such that the viewpoint center is located behind the image pickup device; wherein, if a cross-section of the image pickup unit extends down an optical axis of the image pickup unit, each of the image pickup units satisfy a conditional equation AL<fD, where: A is a cross-sectional length of the image pickup device within the cross-section; L is a cross-sectional length from the front lens to the image pickup device within the cross-section; f is a whole focal length of a lens system comprising the front lens and the lens group; and D is a cross-sectional length of the front lens within the cross-section; and wherein the viewpoint centers of the plurality of image pickup units lie within a sphere with a diameter of 20 mm.