Asahi Kogaki Kogo Kabushiki Kaisha

Nori Numako

Hiroshi Nomura

Yasushi Tabata

Takuma Sato

Yoshinari Tanimura

Masaaki Kishimoto

A camera has a lens barrier apparatus in which the lens barrier apparatus is driven by a motor that is also used to drive another mechanical element in the camera. The motor is switched between the lens barrier apparatus and the mechanical element by the movement of a lens barrel. The driving of the lens barrier apparatus and the mechanical element are controlled in accordance with the output of a single sensor, for example an encoder. The driving of the lens barrier apparatus is controlled such that the barrier will not close unless the lens barrel is at the housed position and such that if the lens barrier does not open, the lens barrel will not move. The driving is further controlled such that if the lens barrier apparatus does not move to its intended state, the drive is reversed prior to again attempting to drive to the intended state. The lens barrier apparatus is mechanically arranged such that the barrier blades are non-resiliently driven during a portion of the closing or opening operation and are resiliently driven during the remainder of the closing or opening operation.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Nori Numako