Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Pentax Corporation

Hoya Corporation

Asahi Kogaku Kogyo K.k.

Asahi Kogaku Kabushiki Kaisha

Asahi Kagaku Kabushiki Kaisha

Tetsuji Shono

Fumio Urano

Masahiro Kawasaki

Naoyuki Uno

Akihiro Arai

Hiroshi Kurei

Eiichi Tano

Katsuhiko Nomura

Jun Hirakawa

Takumi Kobayashi

Katsuhiko Miyata

Michiro Ohishi

Kunio Mita

Kazuo Goto

Chiharu Mori

Michiro Oishi

Koichiro Watanabe

Nayuki Uno

A digital camera which includes: a photographic lens movable along an optical axis thereof between a retracted position and a photographing position in front of the retracted position; an image pick-up device on which an object image is formed through the photographic lens, the image pick-up device being guided to be movable between a first position where the image pick-up device is positioned in a photographic optical path of the photographic lens behind the photographic lens and a second position where the image pick-up device is positioned out of the photographic optical path; and a mechanism for moving the image pick-up device between the first position and the second position, wherein the moving mechanism moves the image pick-up device to the first position when the photographic lens is moved from the retracted position to the photographing position, and wherein the moving mechanism moves the image pick-up device to the second position when the photographic lens is moved from the photographing position to the retracted position

Digital camera with moveable image pickup device

A digital camera which includes: a photographic lens movable along an optical axis thereof between a retracted position and a photographing position in front of the retracted position; an image pick-up device on which an object image is formed through the photographic lens, the image pick-up device being guided to be movable between a first position where the image pick-up device is positioned in a photographic optical path of the photographic lens behind the photographic lens and a second position where the image pick-up device is positioned out of the photographic optical path; and a mechanism for moving the image pick-up device between the first position and the second position, wherein the moving mechanism moves the image pick-up device to the first position when the photographic lens is moved from the retracted position to the photographing position, and wherein the moving mechanism moves the image pick-up device to the second position when the photographic lens is moved from the photographing position to the retracted position.

A digital camera includes a photographic lens that is provided on a camera body of the digital camera so that an optical axis of the photographic lens is stationary with respect to the camera body; an image pick-up element on which an image of an object to be photographed, which is formed through the photographic lens, is impinged; and a tilting/swinging mechanism, provided in the camera body, for tilting and/or swinging the image pick-up element relative to a plane orthogonal to the optical axis.

Digital camera having a tilting/swinging mechanism

A digital still camera of the present invention has a photographing optical system, a body, an image sensor, a half mirror, a phase difference focus detector. The image sensor is arranged in the body and backward of the photographing optical system along an optical axis. The light-path space is formed between the photographing optical system and the image sensor along the optical axis, light from the photographing optical system passes through the light-path space and is received by the image sensor. The half mirror is provided along the optical axis in the light-path space and the phase difference focus detector is provided outside the light-path space. The half mirror is arranged in the light-path space such that all of the light directed from the photographing optical system to the image sensor substantially passes through the half mirror.

Digital still camera with shifting focus lens

A digital single lens reflex camera includes a reflector located in a photographic light path to reflect object-carrying light transmitted through a photographic optical system toward a finder optical system. An image pickup device is located at the imaging plane of the photographic optical system. The object-carrying light in the photographic light path is reflected by the reflector in a direction substantially away from an eyepiece optical system of the finder optical system. A reflection light path is formed in the vicinity of the photographic optical system and is provided with a plurality of reflection surfaces to make the light reflected by the reflector in the photographic light path incident on the eyepiece optical system. Furthermore, a relay optical system is located in the reflection light path to relay an image formed on a primary imaging plane, which is optically equivalent to an image pickup surface of the image pickup device, to the eyepiece optical system.

Digital single lens reflex camera

An SLR digital still camera includes a quick return half mirror which allows object-carrying light, transmitted through a photographing lens, to be partly incident on a finder optical system and partly incident on an image pick-up device; a mirror driving device for driving the half mirror between a viewing position and a photographing position; a controller for calculating a displacement from a provisional focus position, based on an electrical signal obtained by a photo-electric conversion of the object-carrying light made incident on the image pick-up device through the half mirror when said half mirror is in the viewing position, to obtain a focusing position in which the photographing lens is focused on an object to be photographed when the half mirror is retracted from the photographing light path; a memory for storing said focus position; and a drive mechanism that moves one of the photographing lens and the image pick-up device in accordance with the focus position stored in the memory when the half mirror is moved to the photographing position upon a photographing operation, so that an in-focus image of the photographing lens is formed on the image pick-up device.

SLR digital still camera

An SLR digital still camera includes a photographing lens, a quick return mirror made of a half mirror which is movable between a viewing position and a photographing position, a CCD located in the focal plane, an anti-reflection plate which is movable close to or away from a rear surface of the quick return mirror, and an anti-reflection plate driving mechanism which moves the anti-reflection plate to a retracted position in which the anti-reflection plate is retracted from the photographing light path when the quick return mirror is in the viewing position, and moves the anti-reflection plate to a cover position in which the anti-reflection plate extends along the rear surface of the quick return mirror when the latter is in the photographing position, respectively.

A camera including a liquid crystal display in which an image formed by a photographing lens system of the camera is indicated; an ocular viewing optical system which includes a half-mirror surface and an eyepiece lens system, the half-mirror surface reflecting the image of the liquid crystal display toward the eyepiece lens system, so that the reflected image can be viewed through the eyepiece lens system; and a direct viewing optical system for viewing the image of the liquid crystal display through the half-mirror surface.

Camera having liquid crystal display

A camera including a liquid crystal display is provided with a light interception hood mounting portion corresponding to the liquid crystal display, and a light interception hood which is detachably attached to the light interception hood mounting portion. The light interception hood is provided with a hood body which prevents external light entering the liquid crystal display when the light interception hood is attached to the light interception hood mounting portion, and a magnifier through which the liquid crystal display can be viewed.

An SLR camera system includes a camera body, an interchangeable lens having a lens shutter, a film back and a digital back which are selectively attached to the camera body, a drive mechanism, provided in the digital back, which drives the image pick-up device in a direction of an optical axis of the interchangeable lens, and a controller. When digital back and the interchangeable lens are attached to the camera body, upon receiving a shutter release signal, the controller controls a focal plane shutter provided in the camera body to fully open and subsequently controls the drive mechanism to advance the image pick-up device to the focal plane before controlling the lens shutter to operate, controls the drive mechanism to retreat the image pick-up device, and subsequently controls the focal plane shutter to shut after controlling the lens shutter to operate.

SLR camera which can selectively utilize light-sensitive film or an image pick-up device

An adapter having a tilt and shift mechanism which is mounted between a camera body and a photographic lens to relatively tilt or shift the camera body. The photographic lens includes a body mount frame which is provided with a mount to which the camera body can be detachably mounted, a tilt frame which is connected to the body mount frame, and a shift frame which is provided with a lens mounting mount to which the photographic lens can be detachably mounted and which is connected to the tilt frame to linearly move in a direction intersecting the optical axis of the photographic lens. The tilt frame is connected to the body mount frame to move along an arc having a predetermined radius, the center of the radius being located on a center of an image surface.

Adapter having a tilt and shift mechanism

A double dial mechanism for a camera includes two coaxially-arranged rotatable dials, and two dial rotational position detecting mechanisms. The two dial rotational position detecting mechanisms are respectively arranged at positions that differ in an axial direction and overlap in a radial direction.

Double dial mechanism for a camera

In a viewfinder optical system in a thin-type camera, the following are provided: first to fourth lenses for effecting image-forming operation; a first reflecting mirror for bending a principal optical axis 90 degrees in a heightwise direction of a camera; a second reflecting mirror for bending thin bent optical axis 90 degrees in a widthwise direction of the camera; a third reflecting mirror for bending this bent optical axis 90 degrees in an opposite direction to the heightwise direction of the camera; and a fourth reflecting mirror for bending this bent optical axis 90 degrees in a direction parallel with the principal optical axis. Despite the fact that the camera is made thin, its optical path length can be made long, and it is possible to form a viewfinder optical system having a high magnification of the viewfinder or a viewfinder optical system having a zooming structure.

Viewfinder optical system of thin-type camera

A digital still camera having an image pickup device which picks up an image formed by a photographing lens includes a photographing lens provided with at least two lens groups of which the rearmost lens group does not move in the optical axis direction and a sealing member which seals a photographing light path defined between the rearmost lens group and the image pickup device.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Tetsuji Shono