Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Corporatiion

Yu Sato

Toshiyuki Toyofuku

Tatsuji Higuchi

Takashi Inoue

Kazutoshi Shiratori

Hiroki Onda

Kaoru Kaneko

Hiroyoshi Watanabe

Yoshito Kobayashi

In an electronic image pickup apparatus, a beam splitter and an image pickup element are incorporated into an optical finder unit together with optical parts used for an optical finder. The optical finder unit includes a finder case for receiving the optical parts used for the optical finder and a holding member for holding the beam splitter and the image pickup element. The image pickup element has an image pickup surface which is inclined to the light beams incident upon the beam splitter. The light beam incident upon the image pickup element is reflected twice in the beam splitter, while the light beam incident upon the optical finder penetrates the beam splitter without being reflected.

Electronic image pickup apparatus

A pair of guide grooves are formed to extend parallel with each other on an outer surface of a housing of an electronic image pickup apparatus with a lens opening interposed therebetween. A lens barrier has both end portions engaged with the paired guide grooves and is movable between a close position for closing the lens opening and an open position for opening the lens opening while both end portions are guided by the guide grooves. One of the guide grooves opens in a cross direction crossing a front direction to which a front surface area, in which the lens opening is formed, on the outer surface of the housing, is directed, and the other of the guide grooves opens in the front direction on the outer surface of the housing. One of the end portions of the lens barrier corresponding to the one guide groove is inserted into and engaged with the one guide groove to be slidable along the one guide groove, and the other of the end portions of the lens barrier corresponding to the other guide groove is inserted into and engaged with the other guide groove to be slidable along the other guide groove. A separation protection member is fixed on the outer surface of the housing to cover at least part of the opening of the other guide groove after the other end portion of the lens barrier has been inserted into the other guide groove, and engages with the other end portion of the lens barrier in the front direction to prevent the other end portion of the lens barrier from separating from the opening of the other guide groove.

Electronic image pickup apparatus having a light weight and easy to assemble lens barrier supporting mechanism which requires little force to operate

A camera comprises a cartridge chamber having an access opening through which a film cartridge of film feeding type is loaded into a cavity of the cartridge chamber in a direction substantially vertical to a cartridge shaft of the film cartridge, and a slide cover capable of turning to an open position where the film cartridge is loaded and a closed position where the access opening of the cartridge chamber is closed. A turning position of the slide cover is restricted so that communication between the cavity of the cartridge chamber and a film feed passage is blocked by part of the slide cover, when the slide cover is turned to the open position.

Camera

A camera having a lens shutter mechanism in accordance with the present invention comprises sectors lying in a lens frame and forming a predetermined exposure aperture, a drive ring for opening and closing the sectors, a high-speed sector opening lever and a low-speed sector opening lever which drive the drive ring through an interlock lever, a plurality of springs having different strengths and constraining the high-speed sector opening lever and low-speed sector opening lever, a sector closing lever for driving the high-speed sector opening lever and low-speed sector opening lever in a direction causing the sectors to close, a mode changing member for changing shutter speeds by selecting whether both or either of the high-speed sector opening lever and low-speed sector opening lever should be driven, a charge cam gear for resetting the shutter mechanism to an initial position after exposure is completed, and a groove bored along the optical axis in a camera body and designed to guide the drive ring along the optical axis when the lens frame collapses and to restrain the drive ring from rotating about the optical axis after the lens frame completes collapsing. Only a minimum number of required members are disposed in a lens frame and the remaining members are arranged in a camera body. This results in a compact camera.

Growing community of inventors

Hino, Japan

Yu Sato