A culture vessel that houses a culture liquid and a specimen is irradiated with pattern light having a pattern that is previously set for the culture vessel. Transmitted light transmitted through the culture liquid in the culture vessel because of the irradiation with the pattern light is detected. Optical characteristics of an adjusting optical system that adjusts refraction of light caused by the shape of the liquid surface of the culture liquid in the culture vessel are adjusted, on the basis of a detection signal based on the detected transmitted light. After the adjustment, the culture vessel is irradiated with illumination light for phase-contrast measurement, and the specimen irradiated with the illumination light is imaged.

A lens module includes a carrier having an internal space, a lens unit including a plurality of lens groups and disposed in the carrier so that one or more of the lens groups is movable in a length direction of the carrier, a lens guide unit connected to the one or more movable lens groups to guide movement of the one or more movable lens groups, and a lens driving unit connected to the lens guide unit and including a plurality of driving wires formed of a shape memory alloy. The lens guide unit is moved in a height direction of the carrier by expansion and contraction of the plurality of driving wires to move the one or more lens groups in the length direction of the carrier.

Lens barrel according to the present exemplary embodiment is provided with lens unit, stationary frame, focus ring, focus grip, and a fixing section. Lens unit has an optical system. Stationary frame supports lens unit to be movable in a direction of optical axis X of the optical system. Focus ring is disposed on an outer circumferential side of lens unit, and is rotated when focus adjustment is manually performed. Focus grip is provided to protrude outwardly from focus ring, and operated for rotating focus ring. The fixing section fixes focus ring to stationary frame when focus adjustment is automatically performed. The fixing section has fixing button which is disposed on focus grip and operated for fixing focus ring to stationary frame.

The present invention provides as an aspect thereof an accessory apparatus detachably attachable to an image-capturing apparatus. The accessory apparatus includes an accessory communicator configured to enable communication with the image-capturing apparatus, and an accessory controller configured to perform the communication with the image-capturing apparatus through the accessory communicator. The accessory controller is configured, in response to detecting an error in the communication, to transmit an error notice that notifies the image-capturing apparatus of the error, and to perform a communication restoration process for restoring the communication, without waiting for a response to the error notice from the image-capturing apparatus.

An optical element driving mechanism is provided, including a movable part for connecting an optical element; a fixed part, wherein the movable part can move relative to the fixed part; a driving assembly for driving the movable part to move relative to the fixed part; and a supporting assembly, wherein the movable part can move relative to the fixed part in multiple dimensions via the supporting assembly.

An apparatus includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a focusing lens group, a zoom lens group, and a relay lens group. The relay lens group includes an extender group and a correction lens group. The apparatus includes a temperature detector, a storage storing information relating to a moving amount of the correction lens group, and a controller configured to control a position of the correction lens group. The storage stores first information relating to the moving amount for correction of focus movement due to change in a temperature and insertion of the extender group. The controller obtains the moving amount based on the temperature and the first information. A specific conditional expression is satisfied.

A device may include an input component and a focus control component. The focus control component may receive, from the input component, an input associated with adjusting a focus of a field of view of the device. The focus control component may determine whether an area of interest is present in the field of view. The focus control component may adjust, based on determining that the area of interest is not present in the field of view, the focus of the field of view at a focus speed associated with the input, or, based on determining that the area of interest is present in the field of view, may determine one or more parameters for modifying the focus speed, modify the focus speed based on the one or more parameters, and adjust the focus of the field of view at the modified focus speed.

An image pickup apparatus that is capable of preventing degradation of quality of an image obtained. An insertion-extraction unit inserts and extracts a filter of which transmittance for infrared light is higher than the transmittance for visible light. A computation unit computes an object distance between the image pickup apparatus and an object. An evaluation unit evaluates an image quality based on at least a sharpness in an image including a picked up object image. A control unit controls the insertion-extraction unit so as to insert or extract the filter based on at least one of the image quality and the object distance.

An apparatus includes a focus lens unit movable for focusing, a zoom lens unit movable for zooming, and a controller configured to determine information on a target angle of view based on information relating to a position of the focus lens unit and information relating to a position of the zoom lens unit, and to perform control as control of the position of the zoom lens unit based on the information on the target angle of view and the information relating to the position of the focus lens unit. The controller is configured to perform setting of the target angle of view in a case where movement of the zoom lens unit is started by the control after the control is started.

A control apparatus includes a calculation unit configured to perform a focus detection by a phase difference detection method based on an image signal output from an image sensor, and to calculate a defocus amount, and a focus control unit configured to control a focus lens based on the defocus amount. When a predetermined condition is satisfied, the focus control unit changes a driving speed of the focus lens based on information on a luminance or contrast of the image signal. At least one processor or circuit is configured to perform a function of at least one of the units.