Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Imaging Corporation

Ikko Mori

Tsuyoshi Hirabayashi

Kazuki Sakurai

Satoshi Miyazaki

Moriya Katagiri

Tetsuya Takagi

Naoki Matsumoto

Katsuhisa Sakaguchi

The present invention provides a switch mechanism usable underwater including a rear cover serving as an exterior member, two shaft members being displaceable in a shaft direction and fitting into two shaft holes having the same cross-sectional area provided in the rear cover, an O-ring watertightly maintaining the shaft member and the shaft hole, and a lever member being engaged with the two shaft members in a manner to be capable of pressing-down or pulling-up the shaft member, and being configured to balance water pressure applied to one shaft member with that applied to the other shaft member.

Switch mechanism usable underwater

A camera film feed device is provided for enabling freely loadable placement of a film magazine which has a takeup shaft on which a film is wound and which has a film leader protruding from a film feeding opening. The camera film feed device includes a magazine chamber into which the film magazine is loaded, a fork which joins in mating fashion with the takeup shaft of the film magazine loaded into the magazine chamber, a takeup spool which is positioned on a side of a photographing aperture opposite the magazine chamber and which takes up the film, a sprocket which is positioned between the magazine chamber and the takeup spool, and a control circuit which controls the operations of the fork, takeup spool and sprocket. The control circuit starts an operation by the fork to rewind the film into the film magazine when the film magazine is loaded into the magazine chamber, stops the rewind operation when the film is rewound to a prescribed position, and then starts an operation by the sprocket to feed the film toward the takeup spool.

Camera film feed device and film feed method

A camera in which a magazine can be loaded into a magazine chamber in the direction along a winding shaft thereof in a state in which a film leader is wound thereon. During such magazine loading, the film leader is inserted along the outer periphery of a film guide disposed in the magazine chamber. After the magazine has been loaded, the film leader is temporarily rewound into the magazine. Then, it is fed toward a spool chamber. The film leader that has reached the spool chamber is advanced by the spool and film loading is completed. By employing such a loading mechanism, it is possible to provide a camera incorporating a film loading mechanism with a simple structure which is capable of reliable film loading and making it possible, in cameras using 135-type film magazine, to load a magazine in the axial direction thereof.

Camera

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Hino, Japan

Ikko Mori