Patent ID: 7697055

Claim:
A camera unit for monitoring a vehicle periphery comprising: a pickup element; a lens system in which light rays are imaged, the light rays incoming from a prescribed range of a visual field onto the pickup element; the lens system comprising: a first lens system which is a wide angle lens system configured to be a fisheye lens and having a visual field angle in a horizontal direction H, where H>=120°; and a second lens system which is an anamorphic lens system having an anamorphic ratio >=1.5, wherein with respect to a relationship between an image height of respective image portions on an image formed on the pickup element and an image angle of the light rays made incident to the respective image portions, the lens system is configured such that an amount of change in the image height with respect to a change in the image angle is greater at a peripheral portion of the image than at a center part of the image, the camera unit is attached to a vehicle and monitors the vehicle periphery, and the anamorphic lens system enlarges in the vertical direction the image formed on the pickup element.