GB2201801A - Self-portrait camera apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A camera apparatus comprises a cabinet having an outwardly reflecting half-silvered mirror 5 in its front wall and providing behind the mirror a chamber into which light can enter only through the mirror, and a camera 10 in the chamber arranged to photograph an image passing through the mirror. The distance between the lens and the film or other image focussing surface is fixed for focussing on a person positioned in front of the mirror and able to view himself in the mirror. Twin lenses 14 allow two side-by-side images to be produced on film 13 which may be of a rapid processing type. <IMAGE>

Description

CAMERA APPARATUS The present invention relates to a camera apparatus.

Camera apparatuses are known which are disposed in booths and which are for taking facial photographs for use in car licences, identification cards or passports. A person entering the booth positions himself while observing himself in a mirror disposed under a lens, and then operates a shutter to obtain a desired face photograph.

An apparatus in which a camera is attached to the rear of a half-silvered mirror is proposed in laidopen Japanese Utility Model No. 9229/1974. When a person positions himself using the half-silvered mirror operates a shutter, the desired photograph is obtained.

The photographic apparatuses in booths installed in public places have an image focussing mirror at a position spaced from the camera lens and it is consequently necessary to remove a visual line from the mirror when taking a photograph, so that a suitable procedure is required.

Since the camera apparatus proposed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-open No. 9229/1974 employs an ordinary camera, it is complicated to attach the camera to a half mirror, and it is necessary to focus the lens.

Even if an automatic focussing camera is employed, the image is focussed at the half mirror disposed in front of the camera, and it is accordingly an impractical design because the environment of the camera is open lights reflected on the back surface of the half silvered mirror and ambient light appear on the photograph.

The camera apparatuses are thus inconvenient to handle and cannot easily provide a photograph of high quality.

It will be understood when studying this at psychological standpoint in view of the above-mentioned circumstances that a person observes the reflected image and visually measures and positions himself to obtain the image in a suitable size. In other words, it is normal automatically to determine the distance from the human body to the mirror. For example, a predetermined distance exists to take a large reflected image of the person's entire face.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a camera apparatus which enables a person to take a photograph of high quality in focussing by focussing his image at a predetermined position of himself.

A camera apparatus comprising a cabinet having in its front wall an outwardly reflecting half-silvered mirror and providing behind the mirror a chamber into which light enters only through the mirror, and a camera disposed in the chamber and arranged to photograph an image passing through the mirror, the camera including an image focussing surface and a camera lens between said surface and the mirror, the distance between the lens and said surface being fixed for focussing on an object which is in front of the mirror and which can be viewed externally in the mirror.

The person himself determines the frame work of his image reflected in a half-silvered mirror at a predetermined position in front of the half-silvered mirror. Then, when he operates the shutter of the camera the image passing through the mirror is focussed on an image focussing surface such as a film, through a camera lens. Since the distance between the camera lens and the image focussing surface is set fixedly to focus the object at a predetermined position in front of the half silvered mirror, the image photographed on the image focussing surface becomes optimum.

The interior of the cabinet forms a dark chamber, and the camera section is placed in an environment where no unwanted external light or diffusion of the light are introduced to the camera section so that a photograph of high quality can be taken.

The half-silvered mirror and the camera section are contained in the cabinet, and are compact and easily transported and installed.

One embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view, partly cut-away, of a camera apparatus according to the present invention Figure 2 is a partly sectional side view of the apparatus of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a partially cut-away perspective view of the camera section of the apparatus, and Figure 4 is an explanatory view of the positional relationship between the lens and focussing surface of the apparatus.

In tne drawings, reference numeral 1 designates a cabinet. The cabinet 1 has an aperture in its front wall, and behind the aperture provides a camera mounting section 3. In the illustrated embodiment, the cabinet 1 has front and rear sections, to enable it conveniently to be made from plastics resin or other suitable material. The cabinet 1 may however be of one-piece construction or may be formed from three or more sections. Reference numeral 4 designates a grip formed by providing a substantially U-shaped space on the upper surface of the cabinet 1.

Reference numeral 5 designates a half-silvered mirror occupying the aperture 2 of the cabinet. Mirror 5 reflects an image in front of the mirror and partly transmits the image to the rear but does not allow any image to pass therethrough in the reverse direction.

Numeral 6 designates a leg for tiltably supporting the cabinet 1. A weighted foot 7 is provided in the bottom of the leg 6 for stabilizing purposes.

A strobe flash unit 8 is incorporated in the upper front portion of the cabinet 1.

A camera section 10 is contained in the cabinet 1. The camera section comprises, as shown in Figure 3, a lens unit 11, a lens mount 12 and a photographic cartridge 13. The lens unit 11 employed here has a twin lens constitution having a pair of camera lenses 14, so that the camera produces two images side by side on the film at each operation of the shutter. A partition plate 15 is provided in the rear of the lens unit 11 so that the light passed through each of the pair of lenses 14 does not interfere with the other.

A shutter mechanism and an aperture diaphragm mechanism are contained in the head 16 of the lens unit.

The shutter mechanism can be remotely operated by a release 17 extending out of the cabinet 1. The diaphragm mechanism can be adjusted by operating a wire 19 extending about a wheel 18 below the lens unit.

The lens mount 12 has attachment lugs 20 on its inner edge to enable the lens unit 11 to be secured by screws in its front opening. A flange 21 is formed at the rear end of the lens mount 12 to mount the film cartridge 13 and to clamp it to the camera mounting section 3 of the cabinet 1. An aperture dial 23 is supported through a bracket 22 on the collar 21, and the wire 19 extends about a wheel 24 secured coaxially with the dial 23. Thus, when the dial 23 is rotated by the fingers, the diaphragm can be operated as described above.

The camera section 10 is mounted in the cabinet 1 by engaging screws 26 in the cabinet 1 in mounting openings 25 at the corners of the flange 21. Further, cartridge mounting members 27 are provided on flange 21 for attachment and detachment of the photographic cartridge 13.

The photograph cartridge 13 contains a photosensitive member, such as a photographic film, shielded by a lightshielding screen 28 but when attaching to the camera section 10, the light shielding screen 28 is removed.

The positional relationship between the camera lens 14 and the photosensitive member in the camera section constructed as described above will be described with reference to Figure 4.

The camera section 10 has its lens 14 disposed to the rear of the half-silvered mirror 5, and a photograph film (image focussing surface) 30 secured at a distance f at the rear of the lens 14. This distance f is determined according to the distance L to an object to be photographed in relation to the focal length of the camera lens 14. Accordingly, in order to fix the distance f here, when a person to be photographed is located at a distance L from the camera lens 14, it is so set that the person is taken in a suitable size on the mirror 5. The person to be photographed positions himself visually by observing the self-image in the half-silvered mirror 5, any slight errors in focussing being accommodated due to the depth of focus of the lens. Of course, the distance from the camera apparatus to the object may be measured by a scale or both of the positions may be marked. The length of the release 17 extended from the camera apparatus is determined according to the distance between the subject and the apparatus.

The operation of photographing a desired image by the camera apparatus described above will now be described.

The photograph cartridge 13 containing an unexposed photographic film is first attached fixedly to the back of the camera section 10 by the mounting members 27 provided on to the flange 21, and the light shielding screen 28 is removed. Then, the dial 23 is operated to set the diaphragm aperture according to the subject. When thus preparing for the photograph, the camera apparatus is placed in the required proper position, and the inclination of the cabinet 1 is adjusted with respect to the leg 5 while observing the image reflected in the half-silvered mirror 5 so as to obtain a desired image at a predetermined distance L.

Then, when the release 17 is actuated to operate the shutter, his image is projected on a photographic film 30 disposed at the image focussing surface through the half-silvered mirror 5 and the lens 14 to expose the film 30. When the photographic film is of an instant photographic film, the photographic cartridge 13 is removed and the film is removed. Then, desired photographic prints are obtained rapidly. Since the camera section used here employs a twin lens constitution, the obtained photograph has similar images on its right and left sides and is thus adapted for original and duplicate photographs for various licences or certificates.

When the subject is dark, the strobe flash unit 8 is preferably operated.

The apparatus can readily be carried using the grip 8.

The above description applies where the face of the object is reflected in the mirror 5, but it can be also designed to set the mirror at a focal distance such as to enable full length images of the person to be viewed in the mirror and focussed on the film.

The camera section 10 has been illustrated and described as a separate unit. However, the components of the camera apparatus can be individually mounted in the cabinet.

Thus as will be apparent from the foregoing description, the distance between the camera lens and the position of the object to be photographed on the photographic film or other image focussing surface is set fixedly so as to focus on the object spaced at a preset photographing distance, and a photograph correctly focussed on the object at the predetermined position in front of the camera apparatus is obtained which corresponds to the reflected image in the halfsilvered mirror. Since the image of the person to be photographed can be set in the frame work by the person himself in the half-silvered mirror, exactly the required photograph of the person can be obtained, bearing in mind only the reversal of the mirror image in the photograph. Since the focussing is not necessary, as described above, the structure of the camera section can be simplified to reduce the defect occurrence rate.

Since the half-silvered mirror and the camera section can be integrally contained in the cabinet, its handling is simple and its transportation is easy.

Claims (4)

1. A camera apparatus comprising a cabinet having in its front wall an outwardly reflecting half-silvered mirror and providing behind the mirror a chamber into which light enters only through the mirror, and a camera disposed in the chamber and arranged to photograph an image passing through the mirror, the camera including an image focussing surface and a camera lens between said surface and the mirror, the distance between the lens and said surface being fixed for focussing on an object which is in front of the mirror and which can be viewed externally in the mirror.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the camera is operable remotely by means of a cable, to take an exposure.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the cabinet is mounted on a base and is pivotable relative to the base to adjust the angle of mirror relative to the horizontal.

4. A camera apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.