Patent ID: 8456552

Claim:
An image pickup unit comprising: an image pickup lens; a lens array disposed on an image formation plane of the image pickup lens; and an image pickup device having a plurality of pixels arranged two-dimensionally along first and second directions intersecting each other, wherein the lens array includes a plurality of lens sections each being assigned to a region of m- by n-pixel in the image pickup device, where each of m and n is an integer of 1 or more, and m is different from n, and wherein the lens array includes a plurality of first long-shaped convex lenses each extending along the first direction on a light incident side, and each having a width n times as large as a pixel width along the second direction, and a plurality of second long-shaped convex lenses each extending along the second direction on a light exiting side, and each having a width m times as large as a pixel width along the first direction, wherein the plurality of lens sections are formed in regions corresponding to intersections of the first and second long-shaped convex lenses, respectively.