Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Corporation

Setsuya Kataoka

Keita Takahashi

Koji Kato

Yoshihiro Maeda

Yasuo Asakura

Tatsuya Suzuki

Tatsuo Takanashi

Kunio Yokoyama

Naoki Matsumoto

Tetsumi Ichikawa

In a camara exterior part according to the present invention, a front mold member having in one piece a reinforcing portion for preventing deformation is formed using a resin by injection molding. The front mold member is fixed to the inner surface of a front cover made of a metal by adhesion. After the fixing, the reinforcing portion is cut and removed from the front mold member. According to the present invention, high-accurate assembly can be easily realized with a simple arrangement.

Camera exterior part and camera with lens barrier

In a camera body section of a camera according to the present invention, a cartridge chamber unit and a spool chamber unit are located on a lower connecting member with a lens barrel unit as a central unit. Furthermore, a driving-force transfer mechanism is located under the lower connecting member. An output of a driving motor located inside the spool chamber is transferred to the lens barrel unit, cartridge chamber unit, and spool chamber unit through a driving-force transfer mechanism by changing the unit receiving the output. In particular, the driven sections of the lens barrel unit and cartridge chamber unit are driven through a worm gear. According to this camera, it requires a minimum change of each unit section to accommodate a specification change and/or a model change. In addition, it is easy to perform partial assembly of every unit.

Camera

A camera including a hole drilled in the top surface of the outer housing member of the camera, a shaft extending across and fixed within the hole, a release button mounted within the hole in a manner such that the release button pivots about the shaft, a step formed within the hole to restrain the pivotal motion of the release button in one direction, a hole drilled in the top surface of the outer housing in the vicinity of the side where the pivotal motion of the release button is restrained by the step, and a photograph mode button mounted in the hole in a manner such that the photograph mode button is pressed to operate. With these plurality of operational members mounted in close vicinity, the camera not only imposes no complex operation on a photographer but also helps the photographer make less erratic operations.

Camera having operating buttons which, while arranged in close

A camera having: a viewfinder optical system including a stationary objective lens, first and second prisms, a stationary eyepiece lens, and first and second variable-power lenses, that advance or withdraw in the optical-axis direction responsive to zooming movement of a photographing lens array, a viewfinder structure member for retaining the viewfinder optical system, an eyepiece variable-power lens inserted into the optical path of the viewfinder optical system, a viewfinder panoramic field mask united with an eyepiece variable-power lens frame for retaining the eyepiece variable-power lens, a lens constraining spring that, when the viewfinder panoramic field mask is inserted into the optical path of the viewfinder optical system, constrains the eyepiece variable-power lens to abut against the viewfinder structure member for accurate positioning, upper and lower interceptive masks for changing picture size, a first rack extending in a direction in which the interceptive masks move, a second rack extending in a direction in which the viewfinder panoramic field mask moves, a panoramic-mode setting gear engaging the first and second racks, and a viewfinder objective lens sliding axis pin having one end retained by the stationary objective lens or first prism to guide movement of the first and second variable-power lenses along the optical axis.

A camera having: a substantially cylindrical-shaped, rotatable cam, limited to rotate unidirectionally. A drive belt conveys rotation of the rotary member, which rotates due to zooming of lens array, to drive the cam. A viewfinder optical system including a stationary objective lens, two prisms, a stationary eyepiece lens, and two variable-power lenses, when coupled with the cam member, advances or withdraws along the optical-axis during movement. An eyepiece variable-power lens is inserted into the optical path of the viewfinder optical system. A viewfinder panoramic field mask is united with an eyepiece variable-power lens. Upper and lower masks change picture size. A first rack extends in a moving direction of the masks. A second rack extends in a moving direction of the viewfinder panoramic field mask. A panoramic-mode setting gear engages the two racks. A plurality of panoramic-mode parallax compensation marks appear at a trimmed range position within the viewfinder field mask. Normal picture size-mode parallax compensation marks are removed from the field during a high power. A viewfinder objective lens sliding axis pin retained by the objective lens or first prism, guides the two variable-power lenses along the optical axis. One end of a viewfinder lens base retained by the stationary objective lens or first prism, has a ditch restraining rotation of the two variable-power lenses about the viewfinder objective lens sliding axis.

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Hachioji, Japan

Setsuya Kataoka