US Patent 7605856 Camera unit and apparatus for monitoring vehicle periphery

In a camera unit, with respect to a relationship between an image height of respective image portion on an image formed on the pickup element and an image angle of the light lays made incident into the respective image portions, the lens system is configured so 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 lens system further includes an anomorphic lens system which enlarges in the vertical direction the image formed on the pickup element.