Abstract: An optical low-pass filter in the form of a rectangular wave phase grating including at least two sets of parallel phase retardation laminae, the laminae in each set being at an angle to the laminae of the other set. The optical filter is disposed in an optical system provided with a color-encoding filter, such as a single tube color television camera, and the high frequency components of an image on the color-encoding filter are attenuated below a predetermined level. The degree of blur, which is larger than the value calculated from the grating period of the color-encoding filter, is effected by a first set of laminae and beats appearing in the image defocused on the color-encoding filter due to the laminae is attenuated by another set or the other set of laminae.