The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 19, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 19, 2000
Masaharu Kanai, Saitama, JP;
Ko Aosaki, Saitama, JP;
Hiroshi Soma, Saitama, JP;
Mutsumi Naruse, Saitama, JP;
Toshihiko Izaki, Saitama, JP;
Yukitaka Takeshita, Saitama, JP;
Masao Nakamori, Tokyo, JP;
Tetsuo Sakamoto, Tokyo, JP;
Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., Kanagawa, JP;
Abstract
A camera has a movable lens barrel that is stowed in a camera body while the camera is inactive, and is protruded from the camera body to a near range focusing position or a far range focusing position by rotating a drive ring in one direction. The movable barrel returns to the stowed position by rotating the drive ring further in the same direction, because of a cam mechanism interconnecting the drive ring with the movable barrel. To rotate the drive ring, a rotational power of a motor in a first direction is transmitted to the drive ring through a clutch mechanism. The clutch mechanism is switched over according to the rotational direction of the motor and transmits a rotational power of the motor in a second direction to another mechanism. A controller controls driving the motor in response to signals entered through manually operated members, including a power switch, a shutter button and a zone selector, with reference to detection signals from a barrel position detector.