Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Imaging Corporation

Moriya Katagiri

Tatsuya Suzuki

Yukihiko Sugita

Yoshiyuki Kitahara

Kazuhiro Satoh

Kunio Yokoyama

Hiroaki Miyazaki

Junji Shiono

Hiroshi Akitake

Shunji Matsutani

Takashi Inoue

Hidenori Sakurai

Koji Kato

Shigeo Hayashi

Yasuo Funakoshi

Keita Takahashi

Kazuo Yamamoto

Akiteru Kimura

Toshiaki Ishimaru

Tatsuji Higuchi

Hiroyuki Ando

Yasuo Yamazaki

Tetsuya Takagi

Naoki Matsumoto

Satoru Yasutomi

Hidenobu Mochinushi

Naoki Fujikawa

Ikko Mori

Yasunari Shimazaki

Manabu Ikeda

Kazuki Sakurai

Nobuyuki Tanaka

Kosaku Nishio

A camera having a barrier according to the present invention includes a barrier unit in a space between a front main body and a front metal cover serving as an exterior member. Rotation of a barrier driving motor is transmitted to a rotary shaft member passing through the front main body, thereby allowing opening/closing actions of the lens barrier between a protection position for a photographing lens and a lens-barrier retracted position. The front main body is sealed waterproof by an O-ring provided to the outer circumferential surface of the rotary shaft member. With the lens barrel of the camera, rotation of a rotary moving frame is effectively transmitted to a cam frame through a cam follower fit to a linear-action groove, using a circumferential groove and the linear-action groove of a bayonet mechanism.

Camera having barrier

An electromagnetic unit is provided for a lens barrel in which a light exposure controlling unit for controlling an amount of light is integrated. The electromagnetic unit is employed as a drive source for driving shutter blades, and a direction of the movement of a plunger in the electromagnetic unit is switched by a shutter lever, and the shutter blades are opened and closed. A coil and the plunger of the electromagnetic unit are disposed in parallel with an optical axis to reduce the space required for the electromagnetic unit, whereby downsizing of the light exposure controlling unit and the lens barrel is achieved.

Electromagnetic drive

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

A film feeding apparatus for a camera has a spool chamber, a spool, and a motor. The spool is rotated in the spool chamber for winding up a film. The motor is arranged within the outer diameter of the film winding of the spool to expose the outer periphery in the spool chamber.

Film feeding apparatus for camera

A camera comprises a flash light emission section displaceable between a protruding position in which it protrudes from a camera main body, and a storage position in which it is stored in the camera main body. A pivot is provided nonparallel to a direction of light emitted from the flash light emission section, and also nonparallel to a plane perpendicular to the direction of light emitted from the flash light emission section. The pivot supports the flash light emission section such that the flash light emission section can pivot between the protruding position and the storage position.

Camera equipped with flash light emission unit

A waterproof structure includes a first member (front cover) having an elastically-deformable projection at one end and a second member (rear cover) having a contact surface capable of contacting outer and inner surfaces of the projection. When the first and second members are coupled to each other, the projection is depressed on the contact surface and deformed elastically. A contact portion of the projection and the contact surface forms a waterproof region to render a coupling portion of the first and second covers waterproof. Thus, no waterproof elastic member (packing) is required and accordingly no assembly step thereof is required.

Waterproof structure of connecting portion

A camera body includes a photographing lens. A barrier is supported on the camera body so as to be movable between a cover position covering the photographing lens and a retreat position retreated from the cover position in a first direction substantially parallel to an optical axis of the photographing lens and a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction. A rail mechanism is provided to guide relative movement between the camera body and the barrier in the first and the second directions of the barrier. The rail mechanism comprises a first slide projection, a second slide projection, a first cam portion and a second cam portion. The first slide projection has a predetermined projecting length and guides movement of the barrier. The second slide projection has a projecting length longer than the first slide projection and guides movement of the barrier. The first cam portion is slidably engaged with the first and the second slide projections and guides movement of the barrier in the second direction. The second cam portion, branched from the first cam means and slidably engaged with only the first slide projection, guides movement of the barrier in the first direction.

Camera having a barrier capable of single smooth operation

A camera body has a photographing lens. A barrier member is mounted on the camera body to be movable between a position at which the photographing lens is exposed and a position at which the photographing lens is covered. At least two pairs of support portions are placed in pairs at opposing positions on the two sides of the photographing lens and contribute to support the barrier member. At least four rail portions separately engage with at least the two pairs of support portions on the two sides of the photographing lens.

Camera having barrier member capable of smoothly moving

A small camera having a barrier is provided with holding mechanism of a barrier position that requires little space. The holding mechanism includes an elastic member (click spring) having a U-shaped engaged portion (claw) urged toward, for example, a front cover of the camera body. The elastic member is fixed to a back surface of a barrier. A concave engaging portion (click spring insertion hole) engaged with the engaged portion of the elastic member is formed in the front cover of the camera body. The barrier is movable between a closing position covering a photographing lens and an opening position retreated from the closing position. When the barrier has been moved to reach the closing position or the opening position, the barrier is firmly held stationary by the force imparted to the elastic member.

Camera having a barrier

A film drive mechanism for a camera, in which a drive force of a motor is transmitted through a differential gear mechanism to a wind shaft and a rewind shaft and is also transmitted through a screw gear to a spool shaft or a fork shaft whereby, operations of winding and rewinding film are performed. The rewind shaft is placed in such a manner as to be inclined to the drive shaft of the differential gear mechanism. Also, a pair of engaging gears in the drive force transmission device are aligned so that their axes of rotation are oblique to one another. This film drive mechanism requires small space than conventional designs and is small in weight and is advantageous for the cost thereof.

Drive force transmission device for camera

In a camera, a shutter release button is arranged on one surface on the top side of the external housing of the camera and a zoom operating button is arranged on a second surface, which is formed as a step relative to the first surface.

A switch device turns ON and OFF the contact pattrns of a switch substrate by pressing an operating button and turning the turning plate section of an operating rubber member serving as a switch operating rubber member. The turning plate section is turnably supported on a substrate section by a hinge section, and the periphery of the turning plate section other than the hinge section is coupled with the substrate section by a thin film section. The operating button presses the turning plate section at a position near the hinge section. An electrically conductive rubber, which comes into contact with the contact pattern under pressure, is bonded to the turning plate section at a position distanced from the position at which the operating button presses the turning plate. As a result, the operating stroke distance of the switch can be decreased, and also the thickness of a switch mechanical unit can be reduced in the stroke direction.

Switch operating rubber member and switch device

A camera having a camera body unit including mainly a photographic lens frame, a front cover unit and back cover unit that are housing members for covering the outer circumference of camera body unit, a back lid unit to be opened or closed for loading film, and a battery lid for opening or closing a battery stowage chamber. The battery stowage chamber is formed inside the flank of a front cover that is an integral part of the front cover unit, and the battery lid is supported by a back cover that is an integral part of the back cover unit so that the battery lid can pivot freely. According to the camera having these components, a camera having any of various contours can be produced readily without loss of freedom in design.

Camera body for a camera having a battery stowage chamber design

A transmission device of driving-force for transmitting driving-force of various types of driving sources inside a camera. In order to provide the transmission device of driving-force that can contribute to downsizing of a camera without decreasing a transmission efficiency of the driving-force and affecting arrangement of mechanism members inside the camera, there is provided an input member inputting turning-force, an output member that is arranged so that its rotation center may be different from the rotation center of the input member, and a drive shaft transmitting the turning-force from the input member to the output member. A junction of a drive shaft and at least either of the input member and output member is constructed so that the junction can rotate in one-piece with having different rotation centers and allowing mutual inclination by making it possible to mutually rock.

Transmission device of driving-force for camera

Drive force transmission device for a camera, namely, a film drive mechanism for a camera, in which a drive force of a motor is transmitted through a differential gear mechanism to a wind shaft and a rewind shaft and is also transmitted through a screw gear to a spool shaft or a fork shaft whereby operations of winding and rewinding film are performed. The rewind shaft is placed in such a manner as to be inclined to the drive shaft of the differential gear mechanism. Moreover, a fork shaft and a spool shaft to be driven by film at the time of winding or rewinding the film can be driven even when the screw gear and the helical gear remain engaged with each other. This film drive mechanism occupies only a small space and is small in weight and is advantageous for the cost thereof.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Moriya Katagiri