Eastman-kodak Company

Lee D Oldfield

Anthony Dirisio

Joel S Lawther

David Barclay

A motorized camera comprising a bi-directional film drive motor having respective direction modes for film advance and for film rewind, and a movable door latch, is characterized in that the door latch is coupled with the motor to change the direction mode of the motor only when the door latch is moved.

Mode changeover for film advance/film rewind in motorized camera

A film transporting apparatus for moving film between a film cartridge and a take-up spool includes a bi-directional motor rotatable in a first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction, a driving gear engaged with the motor and rotatable in a first and a second direction in response to the direction of rotation of said motor, and a pair of displaceable gears engageable with said driving gear for selectively engaging said film cartridge. According to the invention, each of the pair of displaceable gears is independently movable so as to move into and out of engagement with the film cartridge depending on the direction of rotation of the bi-directional motor to allow either winding and rewinding of film out of and into the cartridge. In a preferred arrangement, the displaceable gears are each movable along a slotted path provided in the camera frame.

Dual floating gear system for a film transport mechanism

Each time an actuator is rotated in engagement with respective teeth of a frame counter in a disposable camera, the counter is rotated the equivalent of one frame to its next setting. To initialize the counter from a random setting during factory prewinding of an unexposed filmstrip onto a take-up spool, the counter includes an elongate rise located between two of its teeth. When the counter is rotated sufficiently in a prewinding direction to locate the elongate rise immediately ahead of the actuator, the counter is initialized. Since the actuator cannot surmount the elongate rise, continued rotation of the actuator in a prewinding direction will not rotate the counter to another setting. Thus as the filmstrip continues to be factory prewound onto the take-up spool the counter remains initialized.

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Rochester, NY, United States of America

Lee D Oldfield