Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Eiji Otsuka

Minoru Hara

Kazuhiro Satoh

A lens barrel constructed of a cam slot, a lens cylinder, a memory means, a detecting means, a motor driving means and a control means. The cam slot has a discontinuous area formed in a portion corresponding to a parting line of a molding die used for molding. The lens cylinder ass a cam follower engaging with this cam slot. The memory means stores information indicating where the discontinuous area exists in the cam slot. The detecting means detects where the cam follower is positioned in the cam slot. The motor driving means makes the lens cylinder progress and retreat in the optical-axis direction by relatively driving the cam slot and the lens cylinder. The control means controls the motor driving means to drive the lens cylinder up to a position deviating from the discontinuous area when the cam follower is in the discontinuous area by comparing memory information of the memory mens with detection information of the detecting means.

Lens barrel

A lens barrel constructed of a cam slot, a lens cylinder, a memory, a detector, a motor drive and a controller. The cam slot has a discontinuous area formed in a portion corresponding to a parting line of a molding die used for molding. The lens cylinder has a cam follower slidably engaging the cam slot. The memory stores information indicating where the discontinuous area exists in the cam slot. The detector detects where the cam follower is positioned in the cam slot. The motor drive makes the lens cylinder progress and retreat in the optical-axis direction by driving one of the cam slot and the lens cylinder relative to the other. The controller controls the motor drive to drive the lens cylinder up to a position deviating from the discontinuous area when the cam follower is in the discontinuous area by comparing memory information of the memory with detection information of the detector.

A lens barrel according to the invention comprises a fixed tube fixedly mounted on a camera body, a drive tube fitted with respect to the fixed tube, a data projector fixedly mounted on the camera body for radiating a projecting luminous flux toward a film surface from respective outer peripheries of the fixed tube and the drive tube, to project photographing information, a through bore formed through a portion of the fixed tube through which the projecting luminous flux of the data projecting means passes, and a cut-out provided in a portion of the drive tube which is overlapped with the through bore in the fixed tube upon photographing. Upon non-photographing, a portion of the drive tube having no cut-out shields the through bore in the fixed tube.

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Minowa-machi, Japan

Eiji Otsuka