Agfa-gevaert Ag

Dieter Maas

Dieter Engelsmann

Rolf Schroder

Alfred Winkler

Reinhard Nicko

Gerda Linke

Peter Lermann

Herbert Schultes

Hubert Hackenberg

Leo Lippl

Kurt Zattler

Alfred Bassler

A photographic roll film camera has a film supply chamber, a spoolless film take-up chamber, a transporting element for transporting the film between these chambers, and a film roll-forming element including a part of the wall of the take-up chamber formed in correspondence to a whole film roll, and a spring-biased guiding lever extending into the take-up chamber and bounding together with the wall a small space for forming a first coil of the film roll so that the initial portion of the film is guided into the small space by the guiding lever and thereafter with increase of the diameter of the film roll during winding of subsequent coils, the guiding lever turns and space for formation of the film roll expands.

Photographic roll film camera

A still camera has a generally L-shaped electronic flash unit permanently mounted on it. The flash unit can pivot between an upright operative position and a substantially horizontal inoperative position in which its flash head is located above the camera lens mount and the unit forms an integrated part of the housing.

Camera with flash unit

A miniature still camera wherein a brick-shaped main section of the housing supports and guides an L-shaped second section the longer leg of which is parallel to and located in front of the elongated front side of the main section and the shorter leg of which is parallel to a shorter second side of the main section. The second section is reciprocable between a first position in which its longer leg conceals a picture taking lens which is recessed into the front side of the main section and the shorter leg conceals a view finder in the main section, and a second position in which the lens and the view finder are exposed and the camera is ready to take pictures. The second section cocks the shutter and/or actuates the film transporting mechanism during movement between its first and second positions and is biased to its second position by a helical spring which reacts against a lug of the main section and bears against an eyelet of the second section. The lug and eyelet surround an elongated guide rod which is mounted in the second section adjacent to and in parallelism with the longer leg. The shorter leg of the second section has a tongue which extends into and is guided by a groove in the rear wall of the main section.

Miniature still camera with expansible housing

A motorized film-transporting mechanism for roll film cameras has a motor-circuit switch arranged in the path of movement of a film sensor so as to be closed when a film is present in the camera. A film counter is biased to zero position when the camera back is opened. When a film is present in the camera and the back is closed, the motor is automatically energized to advance the film by a length corresponding to two film frames so as to move this usually spoiled (light-blackened) film length out of the way. The motor is then automatically de-energized and all components are in readiness for subsequent picture-taking and incremental film advance by one film frame each. When all exposures have been made the film is rewound by the motor which shuts down when rewinding is completed.

Motorized film-transporting mechanism

A camera has an objective which can be moved from an extended, operative position to an inoperative position retracted into the camera housing for dimensional compactness. The objective is driven by a motor from one to the other of those two positions and moved by hand back in the other direction, or is motor driven in both directions. The motor employed is the film transport motor anyway present. The objective is coupled to and decoupled from the drive motor in dependence upon the setting of a manual selector, so that the objective not be driven at improper times, and is preferably coupled and decoupled in automatic response to the setting of a manual selector used to implement other camera functions, so that extension and/or retraction of the camera objective occur automatically as a logical incident to the other camera functions selected by the user.

Still camera with an objective which can be retracted into the camera

A photographic camera has a shutter and a shutter setting and releasing mechanism which includes an operating member which moves in a predetermined path and direction when released. The camera further includes a time-delay mechanism for the shutter which is arrested by an arresting member when the latter is in its resting position. A coupling element selectively pivots between two positions in one of which it is located outside the path of movement of the operating member while in the other position it engages both the operating member and the arresting member. The coupling component is also mounted for movement in the direction of movement of the operating member when in engagement therewith so that it displaces the arresting member out of the arresting position whereby the time-delay mechanism is released. In a predetermined period of time, the time-delay mechanism activates a sliding member which moves the coupling component out of engagement with the operating member whereby the latter is freed to perform its movement in the aforementioned direction during which the shutter is operated. The camera can be used with or without utilizing the time-delay feature thereof.

Photographic camera with a time-delay mechanism

A still camera wherein the main section of the housing contains a shutter, a pivotable shutter cocking member, a normally open switch which must be closed to terminate an exposure, and a release for opening the shutter and for closing the switch. A second section of the housing is reciprocable with respect to the main section between an extended position in which the camera is ready to make an exposure and a depressed position in which the second section conceals the picture taking lens and the view finder in the main section. When the second section is moved to its depressed position, it directly or indirectly prevents the movement of release from a starting position and/or from closing of the switch. The shutter is cocked and the film is transported by the length of a frame in response to movement of the second section to its depressed position. A first spring biases the second section to its extended position and a second spring tends to close the switch but is prevented from establishing an electrical connection between two fixed contacts of the switch as long as the second section remains in the depressed position.

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Poring, Germany

Dieter Maas