Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 24-25, 27-32, 34-35 and 37-45 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fujimoto (US 2012/0069441).
Regarding claim 24, Fujimoto teaches a magnification-variable optical system (Example 2, Fig. 6-9, Table 2, [0121-0132]) comprising:
a first lens group (G1 in Fig. 6) having negative refractive power (Fig. 6, Table 2); and
a rear group (the group corresponding to G2, G3, G4 and G5 in Fig. 6) including at least one lens group (G2, G3, G4 and/or G5 in Fig. 6) disposed on an image side of the first lens group (Fig. 6), wherein a distance between lens groups adjacent to each other changes at magnification change (Fig. 6, Table 2, [0122]),
the first lens group (G1 in Fig. 6) includes, sequentially from the object side, a negative single lens (L11 in Fig. 6, [0121]), a negative single lens (L12 in Fig. 6, [0121]), a negative single lens (L13 in Fig. 6, [0121]), and a positive single lens (L14 in Fig. 6, [0121]), and
the following conditional expressions are satisfied:
-4.00<(L1r2+L1r1)/(L1r2-L1r1)<-0.50 (Fig. 6, Table 2, L1r1=50.943, L1r2=14.571, (L1r2+L1r1)/(L1r2-L1r1)=-1.801)
N1n≤4 (Fig. 6, Table 2, [0121])
0.4<STLw/TLw<0.70 (Table 2, STLw=74.06, TLw=169.31, STLw/TLw=0.437)
where
L1 r 1: radius of curvature of a lens surface of a lens closest to an object side in the first lens group, the lens surface being on the object side,
L1 r 2: radius of curvature of a lens surface of the lens closest to the object side in the first lens group, the lens surface being on an image side,
N1 n: number of negative lenses included in the first lens group,
TLw: total length of the magnification-variable optical system in a wide-angle state, and
STLw: distance on an optical axis from a lens surface closest to the object side to an aperture stop in the magnification-variable optical system in the wide-angle state.
Regarding claims 25, 27-32, 34-35, and 37-44, Fujimoto also teaches the following elements:
(Claim 25) the following conditional expression is satisfied: 100.00°<2ωw, where 2ωw: full angle of view of the magnification-variable optical system in the wide-angle state (Table 2, 2ωw=108°).
(Claim 27) the following conditional expression is satisfied: 1.2<Bwf/fw<4, where fw: focal length of the magnification-variable optical system in the wide-angle state, and Bfw: back focus of the magnification-variable optical system in the wide-angle state (Table 2, Bwf=38.5, fw=16.48, Bwf/fw=2.336).
(Claim 28) the following conditional expression is satisfied: 1.<(-f1)/fw<2.00, where fw: focal length of the magnification-variable optical system in the wide-angle state, and f1: focal length of the first lens group (Table 2, f1=-22.54; fw=16.48; (-f1)/fw=1.368).
(Claim 29) the following conditional expression is satisfied: 0.65<(-f1)/ft<1.2, where ft: focal length of the magnification-variable optical system in a telephoto end state, and f1: focal length of the first lens group (Table 2, f1=-22.54; ft=33.95; (-f1)/ft=0.664).
(Claim 30) the following conditional expression is satisfied: 1.00<fL1/f1<2.00, where f1: focal length of the first lens group, and fL1: focal length of the lens closest to the object side in the first lens group (in Table 2, f1=-22.54; from Table 2, fL1=-27.599; fL1/f1=1.224).
(Claim 31) the following conditional expression is satisfied: 1.00<fL2/f1<4.00, where f1: focal length of the first lens group, and fL2: focal length of a lens second closest to the object side in the first lens group (in Table 2, f1=-22.54; from Table 2, fL2=-75.177; fL2/f1=3.335).
(Claim 32) the following conditional expression is satisfied: 3.50<TLw/Bfw<8.00, where Bfw: back focus of the magnification-variable optical system in the wide-angle state (from Table 2, TLw=169.31; in Table 2, Bfw=38.50; TLw/Bfw =4.398).
(Claim 34) the following conditional expression is satisfied:-0.80<(L3r2+L3r1)/(L3r2-L3r1)<0.80, where L3 r 1: radius of curvature of a lens surface of a lens third closest to the object side in the first lens group, the lens surface being on the object side, and L3 r 2: radius of curvature of a lens surface of the lens third closest to the object side in the first lens group, the lens surface being on the image side (Table 2, L3r1=-103.84, L3r2=71.864; (L3r2+L3r1)/(L3r2-L3r1)=-0.182).
(Claim 35) the first lens group (G1 in Fig. 6) moves in an optical axis direction at magnification change (Fig. 6, [0040, 0094], Fig. 6 shows that zoom trajectory of each lens group along the optical axis upon zooming from a wide-angle end state to a telephoto end state show by an arrow).
(Claim 37) part of the rear group (the group corresponding to G2, G3, G4 and G5 in Fig. 6) moves to the image side upon focusing from an infinite distance object to a close distance object (Fig. 6, Table 2, [0122]).
(Claim 38) the rear group (the group corresponding to G2, G3, G4 and G5 in Fig. 6) includes one or more aspheric surfaces (Table 2, Fig. 6).
(Claim 39) the rear group (the group corresponding to G2, G3, G4 and G5 in Fig. 6) includes one or more lenses (L53 and L55 in Fig. 6, Table 2) that satisfy the following conditional expression: 66.50<νr, where νr: Abbe number of a medium of the respective lens included in the rear group at a d line (Table 2, Vt=82.51 for L53 and L55).
(Claim 40) the rear group has positive refractive power (From Table 2, the focusing length for the lens group including G2, G3, G4 and G5 is 47.385).
(Claim 41) the following conditional expression is satisfied: Fnow<4.20, where Fnow: maximum aperture of the magnification-variable optical system in a state of focusing at infinity in the wide-angle state (Table 2, Fno=0.2884)
(Claim 42) the following conditional expression is satisfied: Fnot<6.00, where Fnot: maximum aperture of the magnification-variable optical system in a state of focusing at infinity in a telephoto end state (Table 2, Fno=0.2884).
(Claim 43) a filter on the object side of the first lens group ([0062], the antireflection coating is applied is preferably an object side lens surface of the most object side lens in the front lens group).
(Claim 44) An optical apparatus comprising the magnification-variable optical system (Fig. 18, [0078])
Regarding claim 45, Fujimoto teaches a method for manufacturing a magnification-variable optical system (Example 2, Fig. 6-9, Table 2, [0121-0132]) including a first lens group (G1 in Fig. 6) and a rear group (the group corresponding to G2, G3, G4 and G5 in Fig. 6), the first lens group (G1 in Fig. 6) having negative refractive power (Fig. 6, Table 2), the rear group including at least one lens group (G2, G3, G4 and/or G5 in Fig. 6) disposed on an image side of the first lens group (Fig. 6), the method for manufacturing the magnification-variable optical system comprising:
disposing the first lens group and the rear group so that a distance between lens groups adjacent to each other changes at magnification change (Fig. 6, Table 2, [0122]);
disposing sequentially from the object side, a negative single lens (L11 in Fig. 6, [0121]), a negative single lens (L12 in Fig. 6, [0121]), a negative single lens (L13 in Fig. 6, [0121]), and a positive single lens (L14 in Fig. 6, [0121]) in the first lens group (G1 in Fig. 6); and
satisfying the following conditional expressions:
-4.00<(L1r2+L1r1)/(L1r2-L1r1)<-0.50 (Fig. 6, Table 2, L1r1=50.943, L1r2=14.571, (L1r2+L1r1)/(L1r2-L1r1)=-1.801)
N1n≤4 (Fig. 6, Table 2, [0121], N1n=3)
0.4<STLw/TLw<0.70 (from Table 2, STLw=74.06, TLw=169.31, STLw/TLw=0.437)
where
L1 r 1: radius of curvature of a lens surface of a lens closest to an object side in the first lens group, the lens surface being on the object side,
L1 r 2: radius of curvature of a lens surface of the lens closest to the object side in the first lens group, the lens surface being on an image side,
N1 n: number of negative lenses included in the first lens group,
TLw: total length of the magnification-variable optical system in a wide-angle state, and
STLw: distance on an optical axis from a lens surface closest to the object side to an aperture stop in the magnification-variable optical system in the wide-angle state.
Claims 24, 26, 33 and 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Uehara (WO2018235881A).
Regarding claim 24, Uehara teaches a magnification-variable optical system (Example 1, Fig. 1-2, Table 1, Pages 10-14 of English translation of WO2018235881A) comprising:
a first lens group (G1 in Fig. 1) having negative refractive power (Fig. 1, Table 1); and
a rear group (GR in Fig. 1) including at least one lens group (G2, G3, G4 and/or G5 in Fig. 1) disposed on an image side of the first lens group (Fig. 1), wherein a distance between lens groups adjacent to each other changes at magnification change (Fig. 1, Table 1),
the first lens group (G1 in Fig. 1) includes, sequentially from the object side, a negative single lens (L11 in Fig. 1, Page 10), a negative single lens (L12 in Fig. 1, Page 10), a negative single lens (L13 in Fig. 1, Page 10), and a positive single lens (L14 in Fig. 1, Page 10), and
the following conditional expressions are satisfied:
-4.00<(L1r2+L1r1)/(L1r2-L1r1)<-0.50 (Fig. 1, Table 1, L1r1=190.754, L1r2=18.8098, (L1r2+L1r1)/(L1r2-L1r1)=-1.219)
N1n≤4 (Fig. 1, Table 1, Page 10, N1n=3)
0.4<STLw/TLw<0.70 (Table 1, STLw=70.516, TLw=126.464, STLw/TLw=0.5576)
where
L1 r 1: radius of curvature of a lens surface of a lens closest to an object side in the first lens group, the lens surface being on the object side,
L1 r 2: radius of curvature of a lens surface of the lens closest to the object side in the first lens group, the lens surface being on an image side,
N1 n: number of negative lenses included in the first lens group,
TLw: total length of the magnification-variable optical system in a wide-angle state, and
STLw: distance on an optical axis from a lens surface closest to the object side to an aperture stop in the magnification-variable optical system in the wide-angle state.
Regarding claims 26, 33 and 36, Fujimoto also teaches the following elements:
(Claim 26) the following conditional expression is satisfied: nL1<1.70, where nL1: refractive index of a medium of a lens closest to the object side in the first lens group at a d line (Table 1, nL1=1.6937).
(Claim 33) the following conditional expression is satisfied: -4.00<(L2r2+L2r1)/(L2r2-L2r1)<-0.50, where L2 r 1: radius of curvature of a lens surface of a lens second closest to the object side in the first lens group, the lens surface being on the object side, and L2 r 2: radius of curvature of a lens surface of the lens second closest to the object side in the first lens group, the lens surface being on the image side (Table 1, L2R1=51.5630, L2R2=22.7020; (L2r2+L2r1)/(L2r2-L2r1)=-2.573)
(Claim 36) the first lens group (G1 in Fig. 1) consists of (Fig. 1, Table 1), sequentially from the object side, the negative single lens (L11 in Fig. 1, Page 10), the negative single lens (L12 in Fig. 1, Page 10), the negative single lens (L13 in Fig. 1, Page 10), and the positive single lens (L14 in Fig. 1, Page 10).
Conclusion
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/Shan Liu/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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