JP2002229113A - Attachment mechanism and image pickup device using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To extremely easily and highly accurately join both attachments of two devices; an optical lens and an image pickup device while holding respective weights, as for an attachment mechanism for attaching the optical lens with the image pickup device. SOLUTION: As for the shape of a guide groove hole for a guide pin for moving the image pickup device backward and forward with reference to the optical lens, the size of a gap formed between the guide pin and the guide groove hole in the forward direction is made differ from that in the backward direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mounting mechanism which holds two devices each having an attachment which can be connected with high precision, and which can more easily perform connection alignment between the devices. The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus in which an optical lens and an imaging device are connected using an attachment mechanism.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when connecting two devices, for example, an optical lens and an image pickup device for picking up an image with light condensed by the optical lens, an attachment on the optical lens side and an attachment on the image pickup device side are used. Are joined so that the optical axis on the optical lens side and the optical axis on the imaging device side accurately match.

At this time, in this attachment part,
In some cases, a combination configuration that does not support the weight of either the optical lens or the imaging device is used. In such a case, a mounting mechanism that holds the weights of both the optical lens and the imaging device is used so that the above-mentioned attachment portion is not burdened with the weight.

FIG. 4 shows an example of this conventional mounting mechanism.
In this figure, reference numeral 31 denotes a bottom frame that is a base for fixing the optical lens and holding the weight of the optical lens and the imaging device, 7 fixes the imaging device,
This is an adapter for connecting to the bottom frame 31.

[0005] The adapter 7 has a structure sandwiched between a screw seat 20 and a mount 21. Here, by loosening the pinching force, the position of the adapter 7 can be moved back and forth with respect to the mount 21.

Further, the mounting table 21 is fixed to the moving table 24. The moving table 24 is rotated by turning the ring 23.
With the feed of the screw provided around it, the base 28
Can be moved up and down with respect to the screw 22 fixed to.

[0007] A screw 28 sandwiched between a holding plate 25 and a holding plate 26 provided on a bottom frame 31 is provided on a base 28.
7 is screwed, the screw 27 is rotated using a tool or the like, and the base 28 can be moved to the left and right with respect to the bottom frame 31 by sending the base 28 to these holding plates. .

The moving amount is adjusted so that each of the moving parts has a positional relationship suitable for connection between the attachment of the imaging device and the attachment of the optical lens. After the adjustment, the base 28 is fixed. With regard to (2), the ring 23 and the movable base 24 are fixed by tightening the set screw 29 with a tool. In addition, for the fixing of the front and rear movement directions, that is, for the movement directions for approaching and connecting the attachments, positioning is performed by fixing the camera to the optical lens, except for the fixing mechanism between the attachments, It does not have a mechanism for fixing the direction of movement before and after that.

[0009]

In the above-mentioned prior art,
The amount of movement described above is adjusted so that the attachment of the lens roughly matches the attachment of the imaging device based on the eyes of the operator, and the attachments are locked. In this case, if the lock is not achieved, the movement amount in the left-right direction and the up-down direction is readjusted, and it is confirmed whether the lock can be performed again. Then, such readjustment is repeated until the lock is achieved.

[0010] When such an operation is performed, since the fitting accuracy of the attachment of the lens and the attachment of the imaging device is high, when the lock is likely to be locked shortly, for example, one attachment may be used. It is very difficult to tell whether the other attachment should be moved up or down, or left or right. Therefore, the number of trials is large. In other words, if an object that needs to be attached with very strict dimensional accuracy is mechanically driven in size and is to be aligned, the attaching operation of the operator becomes very complicated.

Further, even if the position of the imaging device with respect to the optical lens is fixed and once mounted, if another imaging device is mounted again on the optical lens, an assembly error (for example, 0.2 mm) may occur in the imaging device. ) Is allowed, the position of the attachment of the imaging device differs with respect to the mounting mechanism, so that the fitting position must be readjusted as described above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned problem and to easily fit an optical lens and an imaging device.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention comprises a first device having a first attachment and a second device having a second attachment opposed to the first attachment. In an attachment mechanism having a slide mechanism that holds and slides one of the first device and the second device, the attachment mechanism fixes a first member that fixes one of the first device and the other member. A second member, wherein the slide mechanism includes a guide pin in one of the first member and the second member, and a guide hole corresponding to the guide pin in the other. Is a long slot whose longitudinal direction is the slide direction, and the groove width of the long slot is wider near the position where the guide pin is located at the time of the connection, Down to be a more separated position from the position at the time the connection is obtained by that the narrowing guide holes more width.

Further, the present invention provides an optical lens provided with a first attachment, an image pickup device provided with a second attachment opposed to the first attachment, and an optical lens holding the optical lens and the image pickup device, respectively. An image pickup apparatus having an attachment mechanism including a slide mechanism for sliding one of a lens and the image pickup device, wherein the slide mechanism slides and connects the first attachment and the second attachment; The attachment mechanism includes a first member that fixes one of the two, and a second member that fixes the other.
The slide mechanism includes a guide pin in one of the first member and the second member, and includes a guide hole corresponding to the guide pin in the other, the guide hole, Along with the long slot in the sliding direction, the groove width of the long slot is wider near the position where the guide pin is located at the time of the connection, and more at the position where the guide pin is further away from the position at the time of the connection. The guide hole may be a narrow guide hole.

Further, an elastic member is mounted between the first member and the second member, and the elastic force of the elastic member is fixed to the first member or the second member and the optical lens fixed to the member. The gravity due to the weight of the device may be substantially balanced.

Further, a second slide mechanism configured to slide the image pickup device with respect to the optical lens in a direction perpendicular to the slide direction of the slide mechanism may be provided.

It is to be noted that the moving mechanism unit is provided with an attachment position error due to the assembly of the imaging device, an assembly error of the mounting mechanism, and a processing error (for example, about 3 mm) of these components in the left, right, up and down directions. By providing an elastic body having an elastic force substantially equal to the weight of the imaging device at the mounting mechanism portion near the center of gravity, the imaging device can be smoothly guided to the optical lens and mounted. Further, by providing the levers in the left and right and up and down locking mechanisms, the locking can be performed without using other tools.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 showing the embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a view showing an example of a mounting mechanism used in an image pickup apparatus according to the present invention. In this figure, 31
Is a bottom frame that fixes the optical lens and holds the weight of the optical lens and the imaging device, and 7 is a bottom frame that fixes the imaging device.
This is an adapter to connect to.

The adapter 7 is sandwiched between a screw seat 20 and a lock screw 10 via a plate 9. Here, by turning the lever 11 provided on the lock screw 10, the pinching force is loosened, whereby the position of the adapter 7 can be moved back and forth with respect to the plate 9, and the pinching force increases. Thus, the adapter 7 is locked with respect to the plate 9. further,
The plate 9 is fixed to the support 4 and the support 5 via the support 16 and the plate 9 '.

On the other hand, the base 1
5 is fixed. The base 3 is further fixed to the base 15. The base 3 is arranged so as to be sandwiched between the two supports 4 and 5 described above. Here, as the direction in which the base 3 is sandwiched, the supports 4 and 5 slide with respect to the base 3 in the same direction as the direction in which the adapter 7 moves back and forth with respect to the plate 9 described above. This moving direction is the same as the direction in which the optical lens and the adapter of the imaging device are brought close to each other and connected.

A lock shaft 12 penetrates through the base 3, the supports 4 and 5, and the lock shaft 1
2 has one end screwed to the plate nut 14 so as to sandwich the base 3 and the supports 4 and 5. By turning the lever 13 provided at the other end of the lock shaft 12, the pinching force is loosened, so that the positions of the supports 4, 5 with respect to the base 3 can be moved back and forth.
In addition, the supports 4 and 5 are locked with respect to the base 3 by increasing the pinching force.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the supports 4 and 5 are provided with two guide slots 30 respectively. Guide pins 1 corresponding to the guide slots 30 are attached to the base 3. Note that a roller 2 may be attached to the guide pin 1 in order to reduce frictional resistance.

Next, regarding the position adjustment when the optical lens and the imaging device are mounted using the above-described configuration,
This will be described with reference to FIGS.

(1) Up, down, forward and backward movement In FIG. 2, the support 4 and the support 5 which sandwich the base 3 having the guide pin 1 are fixed to the support 4 and the support 5 by the guide slots 30 of the support 5. The moved member moves back and forth by the width of the guide slot 30 in the front-rear direction.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, when the imaging device fixed to the adapter 7 is brought close to the optical lens fixed to the bottom frame 31, the shape of the guide slot 30 is determined by the attachment of the camera. Position error, assembling error of the mounting mechanism, processing error of these components, etc., that is, a shape that allows the gap between the guide pin 1 and the guide slot 30 in the vertical direction, that is, in the vertical direction. It has a shape. Further, the imaging device fixed to the adapter 7 is connected to the bottom frame 31.
The distance between the guide pin 1 and the guide slot 30 is as small as possible when the optical lens is moved away from the optical lens fixed to the lens.

By doing so, when the imaging device is brought close to the optical lens, the gap between the guide slot 30 and the guide pin 1 is large, so that the attachment of the optical lens and the attachment of the imaging device are optimally adjusted up and down. And the attachments can be extremely easily locked with each other. Furthermore, when the distance from the optical lens is increased, there is no play in the vertical direction of the adapter 7, so that the workability when fixing the imaging device to the adapter 7 is smaller than when the imaging device is fixed at the position having the above-described gap. It becomes much easier.

In order to smoothly guide the image pickup device to the optical lens during this movement, an elastic body, for example, a spring 6 is provided near a vertical line below the center of gravity of the image pickup device. The guide pin 1 is so arranged as to be substantially balanced at the center position with respect to the vertical groove width of the slot 30. By doing so, the operator does not support most of the weight of the imaging device, in other words, without feeling much of its load,
The attachment of the imaging device can be easily guided to the attachment of the optical lens.

(2) Left and Right Movement As shown in FIG. 2, a guide pin 8 is fixed to an adapter 7, and a guide slot 32 is provided in the plate 9 for the guide pin 8. Then, the adapter 7 having the imaging device attached to the plate 9 can be moved in the left-right direction perpendicular to the above-described front-back direction by the width of the guide slot 32.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, two devices, such as an optical lens and an imaging device, which determine and connect the joining position with high precision while maintaining their respective weights in the mounting mechanism, are extremely connected. The positioning and connection can be easily performed, and the working efficiency of the operator can be remarkably improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a mounting mechanism used in an imaging apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining an example of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining an example of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a mounting mechanism according to a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 8: guide pin, 2: roller, 3, 15: base, 4, 5: support, 6: spring, 7: adapter, 9, 9 ': plate, 10: lock screw, 11, 13: lever, 12 : Lock shaft,
16: support, 20: screw seat, 21: mounting base,
23: Ring, 24: Moving table, 25, 26: Holding plate, 27: Screw, 28: Base, 29 :, 3
0, 32: guide slot, 31: bottom frame,

Claims (4)

[Claims] A first device provided with a first attachment and a second device provided with a second attachment opposed to the first attachment, and one of the first device and the second device. An attachment mechanism including a slide mechanism that slides the first device and the second device. The attachment mechanism includes a first member that fixes one of the first device and the second device, and a second member that fixes the other. The slide mechanism includes a guide pin in one of the first member and the second member, and includes a guide hole corresponding to the guide pin in the other, and the guide hole has a length in the sliding direction. And the groove width of the slot is wider near the position where the guide pin is located at the time of the connection, and the guide pin is positioned at the time of the connection. A mounting mechanism characterized by a guide hole having a smaller width at a position further away from the mounting hole. 2. An optical lens having a first attachment, an imaging device having a second attachment opposed to the first attachment, and holding the optical lens and the imaging apparatus, respectively, while holding the optical lens and the imaging. An image pickup apparatus having an attachment mechanism including a slide mechanism for sliding any one of the devices, wherein the slide mechanism slides to connect the first attachment and the second attachment. A first member that fixes one of the optical lens and the imaging device, and a second member that fixes the other, and wherein the slide mechanism is configured to use any one of the first member and the second member. One of them has a guide pin and the other has a guide hole corresponding to the guide pin. The guide hole is a long slot with the slide direction being long, and the groove width of the long slot is wider near the position where the guide pin is located at the time of the connection, and the guide pin is positioned at the time of the connection. An imaging device characterized in that a guide hole having a smaller width is provided at a position further away from the guide hole. 3. The imaging device according to claim 2, wherein an elastic member is mounted between the first member and the second member, and the elastic force of the elastic member is set to the first member or the second member. An imaging apparatus characterized by being substantially balanced with gravity caused by the weight of an optical lens or an imaging device fixed to the member. 4. The imaging device according to claim 2, wherein a direction perpendicular to a sliding direction of the slide mechanism is:
An imaging apparatus comprising: a second slide mechanism configured to slide the image sensor with respect to the optical lens.