Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Asahi Kogaku Kabushiki Kaisha

Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kaisha

Asahi Kogaki Kogo Kabushiki Kaisha

Yoshinari Tanimura

Hiroshi Nomura

Yasushi Tabata

Takuma Sato

Masaaki Kishimoto

Norio Numako

Takamitsu Sasaki

Kazuyoshi Azegami

Hiroyuki Takahashi

Masahiro Kawasaki

Takayuki Ito

Kosei Kosako

Nori Numako

A lens barrier apparatus includes a lens barrier having opened and closed positions, The lens barrier is positioned on the front face of a lens barrel and protects a camera lens. A motor which drives the opening/closing of the lens barrier and an encoder outputs a predetermined signal together with the rotation of the motor. A drive control when a battery is loaded in the camera, drives the motor in a direction in which the lens barrier is closed and, when the predetermined signal is not output from the encoder during the driving process, drives the motor in a direction in which the lens barrier is opened and then drives the motor in the direction in which the lens barrier is closed again.

Camera with lens barrier apparatus

A camera with 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. In this arrangement, 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 barrier blades are nonresiliently driven during a portion of the closing or opening operation and are resiliently driven during the remainder of the closing or opening operation.

A zoom camera includes a lens that is movable from a housed position to an arbitrary position in a photographing enabling range. A lens driver drives the lens, a lens barrier moves between opened and closed positions, and lens barrier closing mechanism moves the lens barrier between an opened position and the closed position. A detector detects that the lens has moved from a position within the photography enabling range to the housed position and controller prevents the lens barrier closing mechanism from moving the lens barrier to the closed position unless the lens is at the housed position.

A zoom camera has a lens barrier apparatus, a front lens group, a rear lens group, a rear lens group is lens barrel that houses said front lens group and said rear lens group, said rear lens group is supported such that a distance between the front lens group and the rear lens group is changeable, and the lens barrel is movable between a housed position, at which the lens barrel is retracted furtherest with respect to the camera body, and a photo-ready range, at which the lens barrel is extended from the housed position. A rear group moving device is mounted on the lens barrel, for moving the rear lens group relative to the front lens group. An entire movement device moves the lens barrel without changing a distance between the front lens group and the rear lens group, and a lens barrier apparatus, which is provided with barrier blades that are mounted on the front end of the lens barrel is provided. The rear group moving device is connected to the lens barrier apparatus and drives the lens barrier apparatus to operate the barrier blades when the lens barrel is at the housed position and is connected to and drives the rear lens group relative to the front lens group when the lens barrel is extended from the housed position.

An exposure controlling device comprises, a controlling unit that controls, at the time of an exposure, the DC motor to rotate forward to open the shutter blades and then to rotate reversely to close the shutter blades, a calculating unit that calculates a time period for driving the DC motor in the forward direction between a predetermined starting point and a point where a required aperture area is obtained, a detecting unit that detects the starting point that is an intermediate point of the range of a shutter actuation, and a timer for counting the calculated time period.

Exposure controlling device for camera

A position detection system detects a position of a lens of a camera using a code plate provided with a plurality of electrodes arranged to form a plurality of patterns. The ends of the electrodes are respectively connected to a connecting point of a plurality of resistors connected in series, and a predetermined voltage is applied across the resistors. A conductive brush is provided such that, depending on the position of the lens, two of the electrodes are electrically connected by the brush, which short-circuits at least one of the plurality of resistors. Be detecting voltage at one of the connecting points of the resistors, which varies depending upon which resistor is short-circuited, the lens position is determined.

Electronically controlled camera

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.

An exposure controlling device comprises, a controlling unit that controls a DC motor, a calculating unit that calculates a time period between a predetermined starting point and a point where a predetermined aperture area is obtained during the forward rotation of the DC motor, and a timer for counting the time period from the starting point. The controlling unit controls, at the time of an exposure, the DC motor to rotate reversely for a predetermined time period at a first step, to rotate forward to open shutter blades of a lens shutter at a second step and to rotate reversely to close the shutter blades at a third step.

The exposure controlling device comprises a controlling unit that controls, at the time of an exposure, the DC motor to rotate forward to open the shutter blades and then to rotate reversely to close the shutter blades, a calculating unit that calculates a time period for driving the DC motor in the forward direction between a predetermined starting point and a point where a required aperture area is obtained, a timer for counting the time period from the starting point, a memory for storing data of relationship between the time period and the aperture area, and means for storing an individual data of the relationship into the memory. The calculating unit calculates the time period based on a required aperture area by using the data of relationship stored in the memory for compensating individual differences among lens shutters.

Disclosed is an electronically controlled camera in which a lens system moves along its optical axis. When the lens stops moving, a brake is applied. In order to prevent unnecessary braking which is applied after the lens stopped, the brake is applied wile the lens is moving, and the brake is released immediately when the lens has stopped its movement.

A zoom lens camera includes a whole unit moving device to move a front lens group and a rear lens group together as a whole in an optical axis direction, and a relative moving means to vary a distance between the front lens group and the rear lens group. The whole unit moving means is driven during a zooming operation, and at least the whole unit moving means or the relative moving means is driven during a focusing operation to focus on a subject to be photographed.

Zoom lens barrel and camera having such a barret

A control method of a zoom lens camera comprising a lens system having a movable front lens group and a movable rear lens group, a first motor for moving the front lens group, a second motor for moving the rear lens group, a first pulse encoder which is adapted to control the angular position of the first motor and a second pulse encoder which is adapted to control the angular position of the second motor. In such a zoom lens camera. the difference in the image plane position between the wide-angle position and the telephoto position is measured to obtain the necessary number of drive pulses for the motors, so that the zoom adjustment and the fB adjustment can be carried out without need of a mechanical zoom adjustment or a mechanical fB adjustment.

Control method of a zoom lens camera

Disclosed is a camera provided with a strobe system. The strobe system includes a capacitor to be charged. Charging voltage of the capacitor can be detected through an output terminal. The output terminal can be electrically connected and disconnected to and from the capacitor by a switching element. The circuit has an input terminal which receives a control signal. In response to the control signal, charging operation is enabled, and at the same time, the switching element is controlled to connect the output terminal to the capacitor. While, if the charging voltage has reached an upper limit, the charging operation is disabled and the output terminal is disconnected from the capacitor for a predetermined period of time by changing the status of the control signal.

Camera and strobe charging system

A camera system that includes a zoom lens having a zooming lens unit and a zoom mechanism which supports the zooming lens unit to move in the optical axis directions, and a camera body to which the zoom lens is detachably mounted. The zoom lens has a motor drive mechanism for driving the zoom mechanism to move the zooming lens unit in the optical axis direction, a lens controller for controlling the drive of the motor drive mechanism, a switching mechanism for performing a predetermined control operation on the lens controller, and a lens input and output device for effecting data communication with the camera body. The camera body has a body controller for controlling operations of the entire camera system, and a body input and output device for effecting data communication with the zoom lens through the lens input and output device.

Camera system having power zoom lens

A camera system having a power zoom lens and an automatic focusing device, comprising a zoom motor for zooming the power zoom lens, a focal length detecting device for detecting a focal length of the power zoom lens, an object distance detecting device for detecting a distance of an object which is in focus, and a calculation device for calculating an image magnification in accordance with the focal length and the object distance detected by the focal length detecting device and the object distance detecting device, respectively, and then calculating a target focal length at which the image magnification is kept constant, in accordance with the object distance detected by the object distance detecting device.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yoshinari Tanimura