Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Texas Instruments Corporation

Yukio Mashimo

Tadashi Ito

Takashi Uchiyama

Fumio Ito

Tomonori Iwashita

Nobuhiko Shinoda

Nobuaki Sakurada

Tetsuya Taguchi

Masanori Uchidoi

Hidehiko Fukahori

Masayoshi Yamamichi

Zenzo Nakamura

Yukio Iura

Tokuichi Tsunekawa

Mutsuhide Matsuda

Akio Sunouchi

Hiroshi Aizawa

Hiroyashu Murakami

Yoshiaki Watanabe

Nobuaki Date

Michio Hirohata

Toshikazu Ichiyanagi

Kazuo Ikawa

Masahisa Fujino

Mutsunobu Yazaki

Stephen C Kwan

Kanehiro Sorimachi

Yoshiyuki Takishima

Shyohei Ohtaki

Ryoichi Suzuki

Susumu Kozuki

Hiroyuki Takimoto

Masami Shimizu

Yoshitaka Watanabe

Bernhard H Andresen

Yusuke Ono

Ryuji Tokuda

Yoji Sugiura

Teiji Hashimoto

Shohei Ohtaki

Hideaki Miyakawa

Robert C Martin

Satoshi Watanabe

Nobuaki Sakurado

An electric motor drive device for film winding. The conventional motor drive devices include a type in which the motor is normally kept in an operative state under a no load condition and the rotation force thereof is transmitted to a film winding mechanism during film winding. Another type actuates the motor during film winding. In the former arrangement, keeping the motor in an operative state requires less power consumption for actuating the motor and also eliminates the problem of delayed start. However, since the motor receives power even under a no load condition, a high voltage is impressed on the motor to cause vibration, beat, or the like even under a no load condition, thus causing camera vibration resulting in a blurred picture. In accordance with the present invention, this shortcoming of the conventional device is eliminated by differentiating control over the power supply to the motor under a no load condition from a power supply control in a film winding condition to ensure that no high voltage is impressed on the motor under a no load condition.

Electric motor drive device for camera

In the disclosed camera system, a camera is attachable to a motor drive unit and a flash unit. In the camera, a detector produces a first signal before wind-up of the camera is completed. An interconnection terminal receives a second signal from the flash unit before charging of the flash unit is completed. A disabling arrangement prevents shutter release as long as it senses one of the first and second signals.

Connection arrangement for camera system components

A voltage detecting means is provided in a flash lamp firing circuit for detecting the attainment of the voltage of a storage capacitor to a satisfactory lamp firing voltage level to assure that a photographic camera associated with the flash lighting unit operates in a flash exposure range switched from a daylight exposure range only when a sufficient voltage is available to fire the lamp at the time of striking of the lamp. In one embodiment, the detecting means comprises two transistorized circuits having output terminals one of which is connected to the gate lead of a SCR in a discharge circuit of the lamp, and another output terminal which is arranged to be connectable to a light-emitting diode of the camera and therefrom connected to the gate lead of an electronic change-over switch for selection of the operating ranges of the camera, the light-emitting diode being arranged to be visible from the outside of the camera so that the operator is immediately aware if the storage capacitor voltage has attained the satisfactory firing level.

Flash lighting unit for a camera

In the disclosed camera system, a spring arrangement to drive an automatic exposure mechanism of a camera and a magnet arrangement to control starting and stopping of the AE mechanism of the camera are provided within an electric drive device, and the automatic exposure control of the camera is carried out by mounting the electric drive device on the camera. Facilities, when energized by a power supply, are set to supply driving power to a motor for cocking the shutter, and an arrangement supplies power from the power source to the magnet arrangement for actuating the magnet arrangement. The present invention eliminates disadvantages of prior camera systems, namely, inferior response characteristic of the magnet and erroneous operations by the release action, and a large number of connecting terminals.

Camera system with camera mounted drive

In the disclosed system a camera includes an electro-magnetic release circuit which when operated starts an exposure. A motor-drive includes a drive circuit for winding and rewinding film. The electro-magnetic release circuit is disabled during the film rewind operation to prevent the effect of accidental release.

Motor drive device

In the disclosed motor driven camera, a motor drive is removably attached to a camera body and includes a grip which is fitted to the camera body. Separate switches respond to separate operating members on the upper surface of the grip and the side face of the drive device. A terminal on the camera body provides a signal to a control device and a second terminal on the motor drive connects electrically to the first terminal when the motor drive is attached to the camera body so as to furnish a signal, corresponding to the switching action of either of the switches, to the control circuit. The operational positions of the first and second release switches facilitate camera release in either the horizontal or vertical positions of the camera.

Motor driven camera

An electric motor drive device for a camera is arranged such that, in cases where power supply to a film winding motor is stopped with the camera still in an incomplete winding state and when the film comes to the end thereof after completion of a photographic operation on every frame, the power supply to the motor is resumed in response to a film rewinding completion signal produced from a film detection switch upon completion of film rewinding so that the camera can be brought into a winding completion state. This arrangement solves the problem of phase discrepancy arising between the camera body and the electric motor drive device when they are separated from each other.

An auxiliary power source device to be connected in series to the power source of the motor driven device built in the camera or attachable on the camera so as to increase the winding speed of the camera, so designed that the auxiliary power source device is provided with the load current detecting means in such a manner that the current delivered from the auxiliary power source device to the camera reaches a certain determined value the output voltage of the auxiliary power source device is lowered by means of the output of the load current detecting means.

Auxiliary power source device for motor driven camera

A flash illumination device is removably mounted on the body of an accompanying camera. Electric adjusting means set the diaphragm of the camera. A signal system produces a signal corresponding to a prescribed diaphragm setting and transfers the signal through a shoe attached to the camera body or through other electric connecting means. When the flash illumination device is connected to the camera body, the signal system provides an electrical signal which causes the adjusting means automatically to set the diaphragm.

Camera employing a flash illumination device and a flash photographing

A camera detects which of a number of operating modes is dialed into a flash unit by sensing the current level produced by a source. In response to dialing of a daylight EE mode, the camera measures the brightness of the object to be photographed and conforms the diaphragm aperture to a preselected shutter speed. In one flash mode the flash unit transmits desired aperture and shutter speed data suitable for flash and the camera automatically responds. In another mode, the shutter speed is set into the camera and the camera automatically controls the diaphragm aperture on the basis of data transmitted by the flash unit.

Photographic mode selector system

A co-ordination control system for a camera and a motor drive unit with separate electrical power sources one of which has a higher voltage than the other. The system is provided with an interface circuit including two switching elements arranged to cooperate with a common release button and connected between the circuitries of the camera and the unit so that the higher voltage of the source in the unit is prevented from being applied to the circuitry of the camera. For remotely controlled photographic purposes, the system is further provided with a control circuit for actuating these two switching elements in time-displaced relation to each other.

A storage device for storing photographic exposure information employs a closed-loop analog-to-digital (A-D) converter circuit includes a counter and a digital-to-analog (D-A) converter. The influence of erroneous signals which are created at the output of the D-A converter when the exposure information is stored in the counter is eliminated. The D-A converter circuit employs a ladder network of coarse accuracy. The stored exposure value, however, is highly accurate because of the closed-loop nature of the A-D converter circuit. Means responsive to the stored value for operating the exposure system of the camera are disclosed.

Exposure information storage device for a photographic camera

In the disclosed flash camera, a flash unit is movable between protruding and stowed positions, and a sensor senses whether a capacitor that flashes the unit is adequately charged. A switch and a control circuit enable the flash only when the unit is in the protruding position and the sensor simultaneously senses an adequate charge.

Camera incorporated with a movable flash light device

A circuit for flash equipment having a trigger control switch or an SCR with its gate lead connected to a condenser through a switching transistor which is rendered conducting when the main flash capacitor is charged to the normal firing voltage and when the X sync contact is closed. After a time interval from the closure of the X sync contact, the condenser is short-circuited to prevent refiring of the flash tube. Such refiring would otherwise be caused when the condenser is recharged to actuate the SCR during the period of closure of the X sync contact.

Circuits for flash equipment

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yukio Mashimo