Agfa-gevaert Ag

Horst Karl

Peter Lermann

Otto Stemme

Dieter Engelsmann

Rolf Schroder

Reinhard Nicko

Wilfried Bittner

Rolf Schrooder

Rolf Schroeder

A photographic camera has a housing, a viewfinder, an objective displaceable between extended and retracted positions relative to the housing, a device for displacing the objective between the extended and retracted positions, a film transporting device, a film take-up spool, an electric motor rotatable in two opposite directions and arranged so that when the electric motor rotates in one of the directions it is coupled with the objective displacing device, and when the motor rotates in the other of the directions it is coupled with the film transporting device and the film take-up spool, a switching element for reversing the electric motor, and a locking device for the film take-up spool, coupled with the switching element so that when the electric motor is switched for rotation in the one direction for displacing the objective and is coupled with the objective displacing device the film take-up spool is locked against rotation, and when the electric motor is reversed and uncoupled the film take-up spool is released.

Still camera with a retractable objective

A motorized still camera has a housing which can receive film cassettes in a film chamber at the rear side of the housing. A motor-drive of the camera includes a motor which is located forwardly of the cassette take-up section, in direction towards the front side of the camera. A motor-controlling mechanism and a film transporting mechanism of the motor drive are so dimensioned as to require relatively little space in direction vertically of the camera and in direction between the front and rear side, but instead to have their major dimensions extending lengthwise of the housing so as to make optimum use of the space available in the housing.

Motorized still camera

When the user presses the trigger button, a rod is pulled longitudinally by a drive spring in a first direction from a first to a second position triggering the shutter in the process and a coupling thereafter couples the rod to a transport motor which returns the rod in the opposite second direction back to first position, the rod resetting the shutter in the process, the rod when returned to second position becoming decoupled from the motor so that the latter will not oppose the force of the drive spring for the next first-direction movement of the rod. The crank rod is blocked against first-direction movement by two blocking levers, the first initially being in blocking position and the second initially in unblocking position. When the user presses the trigger button, the first blocking lever unblocks the rod and the latter performs its first-direction movement, the first lever remaining in unblocking position until the user releases the trigger button, and near the end of the second-direction movement of the rod the second blocking lever snaps into blocking position, to prevent an unintentional second exposure, the second blocking lever blocking the rod until the first lever, upon release of the trigger button, can return to blocking position, whereupon the second lever once more assumes unblocking position. When instead of single exposures exposure sequences are to be made, the user sets a manual switch which arrests the second lever in unblocking position, so that the rod performs its first- and second-direction movements alternately for as long as the user keeps the trigger button depressed.

Trigger mechanism for photographic camera provided with motor-driven

When the trigger button is depressed, a crank rod is pulled by a biasing spring in a first direction from a first to a second position triggering the shutter in the process, and an associated crankwheel drives a gear segment coupled thereto to an angular position engaging a motor-driven transmission, which latter then drives the gear segment, crankwheel and thereby the crank rod in an opposite second direction back to first position, the crank rod resetting the shutter in the process, whereupon the gear segment reaches an angular position once more disengaged from the film-transport motor. A switch-control lever coupled to a perforation feeler keeps a motor-energize switch closed until the feeler enters a film perforation, but a switch-control lever redundantly keeps the motor-energize switch closed under the camming action of the crank rod, whereby if film is present in the camera motor energization terminates when the feeler enters a perforation, whereas if film is not present then, for demonstration purposes, the same operations are performed, but with motor energization terminating in dependence upon crank rod position.

Growing community of inventors

Munich, Germany

Horst Karl