IMAGE RECORDING SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING ANALYTICAL TEST ELEMENTS

Image recording system for the evaluation of analytical test elements with a holding unit (8) into which the test elements are placed or onto which they are placed as well as a lens system (5) which records an image of the test elements on a CCD chip (3) and an evaluation unit that evaluates the image on the CCD chip or displays it on a monitor. The image recording system enables numerous test elements of different sizes to be evaluated at different wavelengths without requiring focussing by the user. The lens system used for this is a reducing optical system with an aperture on the side of the image of at least 0.7 and a distance between the CCD chip and the nearest lens of the lens system of less than 15 mm. In addition the distance between the nearest lens of the lens system and the CCD chip is kept constant to at least 10 .mu.m in order to ensure an adequate sharpness. A compensator is described for keeping this distance constant.