JPH075550A - camera - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] With a conventional collapsible camera, there is a risk that sand, dust, etc. may enter the helicoid portion on the outer periphery of the lens barrel, or light rays may leak into the aperture through the helicoid portion. It was An object of the present invention is to provide a camera that eliminates such a risk. According to the camera of the present invention, a female helicoid 12 is provided on an inner peripheral portion of a lens barrel 11, and a male helicoid 15 screwed to the female helicoid is provided on a camera body 14, and the helicoid engaging portion is a lens barrel 11. So that it is not exposed to the outer peripheral portion of. Therefore, there is no risk that sand, dust, or the like will enter the helicoid engaging portion, or that harmful rays will leak into the aperture. Further, since it is not necessary to strongly press the dustproof member 19 against the outer peripheral surface of the lens barrel 11, the friction load on the lens barrel can be reduced, and therefore the lens barrel can be moved at a high speed without requiring a large motor.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a so-called collapsible camera having a lens barrel retracted into a camera body.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An outline of a conventional retractable camera will be described with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 2 denotes a lens barrel for holding the taking lens 1, on the outer periphery of which a male helicoid 3 is formed, which is screwed onto a female helicoid 4a provided on the inner periphery of the drive ring 4. ing. The drive ring 4 has a gear portion 4b on the outer circumference, and is connected to a motor (not shown) via a transmission gear 9 that meshes with the gear portion. It is rotatably held by the camera body 5. Reference numeral 7 denotes a shutter, which is integrally attached to the lens barrel 2. Reference numeral 8 is a linear guide member that prevents the lens barrel 2 from rotating, and 20 is an exterior member.

When the drive ring 4 is rotated from a drive source (not shown), the lens barrel 2 is extended from the retracted position of FIG. 3 to the shooting standby position and stopped, and then a release operation is performed. The drive ring 4 is rotated again, the lens barrel 2 is also extended again, and focusing is performed by an automatic distance measuring device (not shown).

[0005]

The conventional camera described above has the following drawbacks.

(I) Sand, dust and the like easily enter the helicoid screwing portion from the outside.

(Ii) Light rays that have entered from around the lens barrel enter the aperture through the helicoid portion.

Therefore, in order to eliminate such a defect, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 4, a rubberized cloth 12 is provided between the exterior member 20 of the camera and the lens barrel 2, or the drive ring 4 is provided. Although a suede 13 (or silicone rubber) is provided between the lens barrel 2 and the lens barrel 2 to prevent a gap from occurring, this increases the friction load applied to the lens barrel, resulting in an increase in the lens barrel drive load. Then, a larger motor is required and the camera becomes larger, or there is a problem that the moving speed of the lens barrel slows down due to frictional load and the performance and operability of the camera deteriorates. Was there.

Further, in the structure of the conventional example described above, since the drive ring 4 is held between the camera body 5 and the pressing member 6, the drive ring 4 is slightly rotated in the optical axis direction in order to smoothly rotate. Therefore, the drive ring 4 has a play in the optical axis direction, and this play causes a focus error during focusing. Therefore, in order to eliminate this drawback, as shown in FIG. 5, conventionally, a camera having a structure in which a back washer 14 or a leaf spring is provided between the pressing member 6 and the drive ring 4 to remove the backlash is provided. It is also known, but with the structure as shown in FIG. 5, it is unavoidable that the friction at the time of rotation of the drive ring 4 becomes large, and therefore the above-mentioned problem could not be solved.

An object of the present invention is to provide a camera which solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, it is necessary to prevent the helicoid engaging portion between the lens barrel and the camera body from being outside the lens barrel. In the camera of the present invention, from such a viewpoint, the female helicoid is provided in the lens barrel and the male helicoid is provided in the camera body,
As a result, the helicoid engaging portion between the lens barrel and the camera body is arranged inside the lens barrel. According to this structure,
It is possible to prevent sand and dust from entering the helicoid engaging portion between the lens barrel and the camera body, and prevent light rays from leaking into the aperture through the helicoid engaging portion. Further, since the friction of the dustproof member with respect to the outer peripheral surface of the lens barrel can be reduced, the driving load on the lens barrel can also be reduced. Further, in the camera of the present invention, since the shutter unit is rotatably supported with respect to the lens barrel, the shutter unit does not rotate when the lens barrel moves but moves integrally with the lens barrel, so that the shutter unit The flexible printed circuit board fixed to the unit also does not rotate, so that the connection structure of the flexible printed circuit board is simpler than that of the conventional camera, and the electrical mounting in the assembly process of the camera is simplified, which is effective in cost reduction. is there.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

In the figure, numeral 10 is a taking lens, which is a lens barrel 1.
It is held at 1. A female helicoid 12 is provided on the inner circumference of the lens barrel 11, and a gear 13 that meshes with a drive gear 18 is provided on the outer circumference thereof. A camera body 14 is provided with a male helicoid 15. Reference numeral 16 is a shear unit, which is held by the lens barrel 11 so as to be rotatable only with respect to the lens barrel 11 by engaging with the convex portion 11a of the lens barrel 11 at the concave portion 16a, and the guide groove 11b. Is the camera body 1
4 is fitted in the straight-moving guide portion 17 provided on the base plate 4. 19
Is a dustproof member and is fixed to the back surface of the exterior member 20.
Reference numeral 22 denotes a flexible printed circuit board (hereinafter abbreviated as "flexible") for connecting a signal line from a shutter driving actuator (not shown) to a main circuit on the camera body side.

Next, the operation will be described.

When the gear 13 is rotated by a drive source (not shown) via the drive gear 18, the lens barrel 11 is extended forward while rotating from the state shown in FIG. On the other hand, the shutter unit 16 is also forwarded integrally with the lens barrel 11,
Since rotation is blocked by the straight-ahead guide member 17, it moves forward without rotating and stops at the shooting standby position shown in FIG. In the structure of the camera of the present invention, the external light from the front surface of the camera does not directly enter the aperture portion of the camera from the outer circumference of the lens barrel as in the conventional camera, and thus the light shielding property is extremely good. Further, since the helicoid portion 12 is located on the inner peripheral side of the lens barrel, the risk of sand and dust entering the helicoid directly is reduced, and therefore the friction load between the lens barrel and the exterior member by the dustproof member is reduced. You can

Further, since the lens barrel 11 is simply screwed into the male helicoid 15 of the camera body 14, there is no backlash of the drive ring as in the conventional example, and therefore there is no risk of causing a focus error during focusing. . Even if the lens barrel rotates, the shutter unit 16 does not rotate but only moves straight. Therefore, the flexible member 22 fixed to the shutter unit 16 does not rotate, and therefore the flexible member is left behind the lens barrel. It only needs to be pulled out, and it is easy to turn the flexure around during assembly.

Focusing is performed by a release operation after the state shown in the figure is reached. At this time, the driving force is transmitted to the gear 13 of the lens barrel 11 via the driving gear 18 by reenergizing the motor. The lens barrel 11 is again rotated and extended forward.

[0018]

As described above, according to the camera structure of the present invention, since the helicoid portion of the lens barrel is provided on the inner peripheral portion of the lens barrel, sand and dust enter the helicoid portion. There is also no risk of leakage of light rays into the aperture through the helicoid portion. Further, since the friction of the dustproof member with respect to the outer peripheral surface of the lens barrel can be reduced, the driving load of the lens barrel can be reduced, and therefore a large motor is not required and the moving speed of the lens barrel does not slow down. .

Further, according to the structure of the present invention, since the shutter unit does not rotate when the lens barrel is moved, the connection structure between the flexible printed circuit board fixed to the unit and the flexible printed circuit board on the camera body side becomes simple. The flexible printed circuit board can be easily routed during camera assembly, which is effective in cost reduction.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a state when a lens barrel of a camera according to the present invention is collapsed.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view showing a state where the lens barrel of the camera is extended.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view showing the structure of a conventional retractable camera.

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the structure of a conventional retractable camera.

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view showing the structure of a conventional retractable camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Shooting lens 2 ... Lens barrel 3 ... Male helicoid 4 ... Driving ring 5 ... Camera body 6 ... Holding member 7 ... Shutter 8 ... Straight guide 9 ... Gear 10 ... Shooting lens 11 ... Lens barrel 12 ... Female helicoid 13 ... Gear 14 ... Camera body 15 ... Male helicoid 16 ... Shutter unit 17 ... Straight guide 18 ... Drive gear 19 ... Dustproof member 20 ... Exterior member 22 ... Flexible printed circuit board

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A structure in which a female helicoid provided on the inner circumference of a lens barrel and a male helicoid provided on a camera body are engaged with each other by helicoid engagement to move the lens barrel in the optical axis direction while rotating the lens barrel. A camera provided with a shutter unit that is rotatable only with respect to the lens barrel and movable integrally with the lens barrel in the optical axis direction. 2. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the shutter unit is fitted with a straight guide member fixed to the camera body.