Patent ID: 7528359

Claim:
A projector comprising: a light source that emits light; an illumination optical system that includes a superimposing optical element capable of performing superimposition illumination and that uniformizes the light emitted from the light source to form illumination light, the superimposing optical element having a first focal distance corresponding to a first color light component and a second focal distance corresponding to a second color light component, the first and second focal distances are not identical; a color separating optical system that includes: a dichroic mirror which reflects the first color light component of the illumination light through a first optical path by a reflection angle and transmits a second color light component through the second optical path, a first mirror which bends the first optical path by a first bent angle, and a second mirror which bends the second optical path by a second bent angle; light modulating devices that are illuminated by the first and second color light components emitted from the color separating optical system and form color optical images; a combining optical system that combines the color optical images; and a projection optical system that projects an image combined by the combining optical system, the reflection angle, the first bent angle, and the second bent angle being arranged to provide a predetermined difference between the length of the first optical path and the length of the second optical path, the predetermined difference corresponding to a difference between the first focal distance of the superimposing optical element and the second focal distance of the superimposing optical element.