JP2003344944A - Camera - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To miniaturize a camera by efficiently arranging component elements in a camera body. <P>SOLUTION: The camera is equipped with an image pickup optical system for forming an image with light from a subject by an imaging device having electric constitution, a lens barrel incorporating an optical system for picking up the image on film, and a spool chamber and a film cartridge chamber arranged to put the lens barrel in between. In the camera, the image pickup optical system is arranged adjacently to the lens barrel on the subject side of the film ejection port of the film cartridge chamber. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera, and more particularly to a camera having an image pickup optical system for taking an image on a film and an optical system for taking an image on an image pickup device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, cameras compatible with a new system called APS system have been commercialized. By using the film cartridge of the new system, the volume of these cameras can be made significantly smaller than that of the camera using the conventional 135 film.

In particular, the camera adopting the arrangement of the camera components proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-27854 is a zoom camera, but it is smaller than a conventional single-focus camera using 135 film. . FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a layout proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-278544.

In the figure, reference numeral 100 designates a taking lens barrel, and 1
Reference numeral 01 is a cartridge chamber, and 102 is a spool chamber. 1
Reference numeral 03 is a battery, and reference numeral 104 is a strobe condenser, which are arranged in the spool chamber 102 and the lower portion of the taking lens barrel 100, respectively, as shown in the figure. A finder unit 105 and a distance measuring unit 1 are provided above the photographing lens barrel 100.
06 is arranged, and the strobe 107 is arranged above the spool chamber.

Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-104711, the power source is arranged above the photographing lens barrel, the strobe condenser is arranged below the photographing lens barrel, and the finder unit is arranged above the spool chamber so that the camera is moved up and down. The size is to be kept down.

On the other hand, in recent years, many digital cameras have been commercialized which take an image with an image pickup device such as a CCD and convert the picked-up image data into digital data and record it in a recording medium such as a memory. Compared with cameras using silver salt film, these digital cameras have begun to spread widely because they can be easily reproduced, recorded images can be erased, and data can be easily exchanged with other digital devices.

However, although the image pickup device in a commercially available digital camera has advanced in performance, it does not reach the level of a silver salt film at present, and further high performance is required to obtain a high image quality comparable to that of a silver salt film. And cost reduction are desired.

Under these circumstances, an image pickup device and a silver salt film are provided, and while recording an image with digital data, the image is also recorded on the silver salt film, thereby improving the convenience of the digital camera and the high image quality of the silver salt camera. Various hybrid cameras to be obtained have been proposed, but none have been commercialized in terms of camera size, cost, and the like.

[0009]

However, in the layout proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-278544, the strobe capacitor 104 and the battery 103 are arranged at the lower part of the taking lens barrel 100 and the spool chamber 102, respectively, and at the upper part. Since the finder unit 105, the distance measuring unit 106, and the strobe 107 are arranged in the camera, the size in the left-right direction of the camera is small, but the vertical size is the outer diameter of the taking lens barrel 100 and the strobe condenser 1.
The outer diameter of 04 and the height of the finder unit 105 or the distance measuring unit 106 are added.

Further, there is a dead space D that is never used in the lower part of the cartridge chamber. This is because it is generally easier for the user to hold the camera viewfinder at the top of the camera when shooting, and the distance measurement unit is adjacent to the viewfinder unit to reduce parallax with the viewfinder. This is because it needs to be placed at the top.

In order to achieve further miniaturization with this layout, each of the constituent elements must be miniaturized, which may affect the photographing performance, the finder performance, and the distance measuring performance. In addition, there is a problem that the number of films that can be photographed is reduced even when the battery is downsized.

Also in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-104711, a power source and a condenser for strobes are arranged above and below the taking lens barrel, and a finder unit is arranged above the spool chamber. Therefore, as in the above case, the upper and lower dimensions will be the sum of the taking lens barrel, battery outer diameter, and strobe condenser outer diameter, and when using a photographing lens with a built-in zoom lens or a large strobe condenser. Will be very large.

In the case of conventionally proposed hybrid cameras, many of them have an image pickup optical system and a viewfinder for displaying a recorded image added to an ordinary silver halide camera, which is considered from the viewpoint of miniaturization of the camera. It has not been done, and it is usually larger than general compact cameras.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-319490 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-319491 also propose a hybrid camera in which a silver salt camera and an image pickup device are combined. However, in the hybrid camera according to this proposal, the half mirror is arranged in the optical path of the ordinary optical finder, and the image pickup device is provided at the destination where the optical path is divided, so that the hybrid camera becomes larger than the ordinary optical finder.

Further, since a large liquid crystal monitor is arranged on the rear surface of the camera, the thickness of the camera is equal to the thickness of the normal camera plus the thickness of the liquid crystal monitor in the camera thickness direction, which is very thick for a compact camera. Become.

In view of these circumstances, the present proposal proposes a camera including an image-taking optical system for taking an image on a film and an optical system for taking an image on an image pickup device, in which each component is efficiently arranged in the camera. The goal is to provide an extremely compact camera that could not be achieved with a conventional silver halide film camera.

[0017]

The invention according to claim 1 of the present application has a built-in image pickup optical system for forming an image of light from a subject on an image pickup device having an electrical structure, and an optical system for picking up an image on a film. In a camera including the above described lens barrel, a spool chamber and a film cartridge chamber which are arranged so as to sandwich the lens barrel, an imaging optical system is adjacent to the lens barrel, and a subject of a film discharge port of the film cartridge chamber. It is characterized in that it is arranged on the side.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera including an electronic viewfinder for displaying a subject image based on an image signal read out from an image pickup device, wherein a battery and a condenser of a stroboscopic light emitting section are each a lens. The electronic viewfinder is arranged above the lens barrel and the spool chamber, and is arranged so as to be aligned with the battery and the capacitor in the optical axis direction.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera equipped with a motor for driving the lens barrel, wherein the battery and the condenser of the stroboscopic light emitting portion are arranged above the lens barrel and the spool chamber. In addition, the motor is arranged so as to be aligned with the battery and the capacitor in the optical axis direction.

The invention according to claim 4 of the present application is characterized in that the strobe light emitting portion is arranged above the film cartridge chamber.

[0021]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION (First Embodiment) A first embodiment will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view of the camera of the first embodiment, FIG. 2 is a top view, and FIG. 3 is a bottom view. FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line aa in FIG.

In the figure, 1 is a taking lens barrel for picking up an image on a film, 2 is a spool chamber, and 3 is a cartridge chamber. Reference numeral 4 is a battery, and 5 is a strobe capacitor. As shown in the figure, the battery 4 is arranged in the upper part of the taking lens barrel behind the camera (photographer side), and the strobe condenser 5 is arranged in the upper part of the spool chamber in front of the camera (subject side).

A lens barrel drive motor 7 is arranged in front of the battery 4. The center axis position A of the cylindrical shape of the taking lens barrel 1 is eccentric to the taking lens optical axis a in the downward direction of the camera by Y, and the battery 4 and the barrel drive motor 7 should be arranged in the space above it. Thus, it is possible to suppress the camera size above the optical axis A of the photographing lens.

The lens barrel drive motor 7 drives the taking lens barrel 1 through the reduction gear 8 to perform a zooming operation.

An image pickup unit 10 is composed of an image pickup lens 11 and an image pickup device 12. The image pickup unit 10 is provided with a lens driving mechanism and a diaphragm mechanism. The image pickup information of the image pickup device 12 determines the focus state and the subject brightness, and the lens driving mechanism drives the image pickup lens 11 to focus. The appropriate exposure state is obtained by driving.

The above image pickup information is also applied to determine the focus drive amount of the taking lens barrel 1, the shutter speed, and the aperture when taking an image on a film.

The image pickup optical system can be made very small by using a CCD as small as about 1/6 inch for the image pickup element 12. Further, by providing the photometric function and the distance measuring function, the photometric device and the distance measuring device, which are required in the conventional silver halide camera, are not required, so that the space for arranging them is not necessary.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the image pickup optical system 10 is arranged in the space in front of the film discharge port 3a of the film cartridge between the cartridge chamber 3 and the photographing lens barrel 1, and further, the photographing is performed. Lens barrel 1 and cartridge chamber 3
By arranging the cartridge chamber 3 and the photographing lens barrel 1 in a substantially triangular space formed at the corners of the, it is possible to arrange them efficiently without increasing the size of the camera in the left-right direction. Has become.

The image pickup optical system 10 performs a zoom operation in conjunction with the zooming operation of the taking lens barrel 1 by a cam mechanism similar to the viewfinder optical system of a zoom camera using a conventional silver salt film. Or digitally process the captured image,
When recording and displaying on a liquid crystal finder which will be described later, it is possible to simplify the mechanical parts by a so-called digital zoom method of enlarging based on the zoom information of the taking lens barrel 1.

Reference numeral 13 is a feed motor for film winding and rewinding, 13a is a reduction gear train, and 14 is a connecting gear for transmitting power to a fork gear 15 for thrusting and rewinding the film. Is. Since the connecting gear 14 is driven with a relatively low torque with respect to the hoisting gear, it can be made thin, and is connected to the taking lens barrel 1 even if the taking lens barrel 1 is decentered in the downward direction of the camera. A sufficient space is secured between the gears 14, and it is possible to arrange electric circuit parts and the like in this space.

Next, description will be made with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a sectional bb view of FIG. In the figure, 20 is a liquid crystal finder unit for displaying a subject image and a recorded image. The liquid crystal finder unit 20 includes a liquid crystal panel 21, a backlight element 22, and an eyepiece 2 for observation.
3. Finder case 25 with prism 24 for image reversal
In the state of being housed in a unit and stored as a unit, it is rotatably held by the camera body by the shaft 26 behind the strobe condenser 5, and an angle can be set as necessary when taking a picture or checking a recorded image. Can be adjusted.

As shown in the drawing, the shaft 26 is arranged along the outer diameter of the strobe capacitor so that the total front-rear dimension is minimized.

Next, description will be made with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along line cc in FIG.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a strobe, which is composed of a flash lamp 6a electrically connected to the strobe capacitor 5 and an optical member 6b for condensing the flash light, and is located above the cartridge chamber 3 in front of the shutter button 9. It is located in. In the figure, 16 is a circuit board for strobe,
Reference numeral 17 denotes an opening / closing mechanism for opening / closing the light-shielding door of the film discharge port of the film cartridge.

In the camera having such a structure, it is possible to dispose the battery 4 and the condenser 5 on the upper part of the taking lens barrel 1 or the spool chamber 2 where the finder and the distance measuring unit are conventionally arranged. The camera size below the optical axis A of the photographing lens can be made extremely small.

Further, in the conventional optical viewfinder, the objective optical system and the eyepiece optical system had to be arranged from the front of the camera to the rear of the camera and usually above the camera, but in the camera of the present invention, the image pickup optical system is used. 10 is in front of the camera,
The liquid crystal viewfinder units 20 can be arranged at separate positions behind the camera, which increases the degree of freedom in layout and is extremely advantageous for downsizing the camera.
In particular, by arranging the image pickup optical system 10 adjacent to the taking lens barrel 1 and in front of the film discharge port 3a of the cartridge chamber 3, the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the camera can be made extremely small.

Further, the battery 4, the strobe capacitor 5,
Zoom motor 7, strobe 6, strobe circuit board 1
6. Since most of the components such as terminals of the feeding motor 13 that need to be electrically connected are arranged on the upper part of the camera, the circuit board can be concentrated on the upper part of the camera.
There is no need to draw a circuit board around the entire camera, which is advantageous for miniaturization of the camera and circuit board, and it is easy to adopt a configuration that is not easily affected by noise.

Further, in the present embodiment, a type in which the outer diameter of the lens barrel is decentered with respect to the optical axis of the photographing lens is used, but it is sufficiently small even if a normal lens barrel which is not decentered is used. Cameras are achievable.

(Second Embodiment) Next, a second embodiment will be described. 7 and 8 are a front view and a top view of a camera according to the second embodiment. In the figure, the same numbers as those in the first embodiment are used for the respective parts.

In the second embodiment, the battery 4 is arranged above the spool chamber 2, the zoom motor 7 is arranged in front of the battery 4, and the strobe condenser 5 and the strobe condenser 5 are arranged above the photographing lens barrel 1. LCD finder unit 2
0 is set. By disposing the zoom motor 7 in the upper portion of the spool chamber 2, the imaging optical system 10 disposed in the lower left side of the taking lens barrel 1 in the first embodiment is located in the upper left side of the taking lens barrel 1. It can be arranged in front of the film discharge port 3a.

Also in this embodiment, the image pickup optical system 10 and the photographing lens barrel 1 are arranged adjacent to the photographing lens barrel 1 and in front of the film discharge port 3a of the cartridge chamber 3, so that the camera can be moved vertically and horizontally. It is possible to make the directional dimension extremely small.

Further, since the image pickup optical system 10 is moved to the upper part of the camera, almost all of the components that need to be electrically connected are arranged on the upper part of the camera, and the circuit board can be laid out within a smaller range. It can be further downsized, which is more advantageous in terms of improved noise resistance and space.

Further, in the case of this embodiment, the strobe 6, the strobe capacitor 5, and the strobe circuit board 16 can be arranged close to each other, and the circuit length of the high-voltage circuit is shortened, so that the luminous efficiency is improved and the safety is improved. It can be placed in an ideal position.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 9 shows a top view of a camera according to the third embodiment.

The third embodiment is a modification of the layout of the upper part of the camera when the image pickup optical system 10 is arranged at the same position as in the first embodiment. As shown in the figure, in the upper part of the camera, the battery 4 and the strobe capacitor 5 are arranged substantially coaxially on the subject side, and the zoom motor 7 and the liquid crystal finder unit 20 are arranged so as to overlap them in the photographing optical axis direction. .

Also in this embodiment, the size of the camera in the vertical and horizontal directions and the size of the circuit board can be reduced. Also,
As in the second embodiment, the strobe 6, the strobe capacitor 5, and the strobe circuit board 16 can be arranged close to each other, and the circuit length of the high-voltage circuit is shortened, so that the luminous efficiency is improved and the safety is ideal. Can be arranged.

[0047]

According to the present invention, an image pickup optical system for forming light from a subject on an image pickup device having an electrical structure, a lens barrel having an optical system for picking up an image on a film, and a lens barrel are provided. In a camera having a spool chamber and a film cartridge chamber arranged so as to be sandwiched, an imaging optical system is disposed adjacent to the lens barrel and on the subject side of a film discharge port of the film cartridge chamber.

Further, the camera is equipped with an electronic viewfinder for displaying a subject image based on the image signal read from the image pickup device, wherein the battery and the condenser of the stroboscopic light emitting unit are respectively provided above the lens barrel and the spool chamber. The electronic viewfinder is arranged so as to be aligned with the battery and the capacitor in the optical axis direction.

Further, in the camera provided with the motor for driving the lens barrel, the battery and the condenser of the stroboscopic light emitting section are respectively arranged above the lens barrel and the spool chamber, and the motor is used for the battery and the condenser. Are arranged so that they are aligned in the optical axis direction. Further, the stroboscopic light emitting section is arranged above the film cartridge chamber.

With such a structure, it becomes possible to arrange large parts such as a battery and a strobe condenser in the space above the camera where the finder objective optical system, the AF unit and the photometric unit are conventionally arranged. The degree of freedom in layout with the liquid crystal finder unit and the zoom motor is increased, and the camera can be downsized.

Further, by disposing the strobe on the upper part of the film cartridge chamber, the electric circuit board is arranged almost at the upper part of the camera, and the circuit board is made compact, the noise resistance is improved, and the circuit length of the high voltage circuit is increased. By shortening the length, the luminous efficiency can be improved and the arrangement can be made ideal for safety.

Therefore, in a camera provided with an image pickup optical system for picking up an image on a film and an optical system for picking up an image on an image pickup element, an extremely small camera which cannot be achieved by an ordinary silver halide film camera is provided. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a camera according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the camera according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the camera of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line aa in FIG.

5 is a sectional bb view of FIG. 1. FIG.

6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line cc in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a front view of a camera according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a top view of the camera according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a top view of the camera according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a front view of a camera according to a conventional layout.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Shooting lens barrel 2 spool room 3 Film cartridge chamber 4 batteries 5 Strobe capacitors 6 Strobe 7 Lens barrel drive motor 8 reduction gears 10 Imaging unit 13 Feed motor 20 LCD finder unit

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G03B 17/02 G03B 17/02 5C022 19/06 19/06 H04N 5/225 H04N 5/225 Z // H04N 101: 00 101: 00 F-term (reference) 2H018 AA32 BE00 BE01 2H044 AJ06 2H053 CA41 DA00 2H054 BB04 BB07 CD00 CD03 2H100 AA31 AA71 BB05 BB06 BB07 BB09 BB11 DD03 DD05 5C022 AA13 AC42 AC77 AC78

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image pickup optical system for forming an image of light from a subject on an image pickup element having an electrical structure, a lens barrel having an optical system for capturing an image on a film, and a lens barrel arranged so as to sandwich the lens barrel. In a camera having a spool chamber and a film cartridge chamber, the image pickup optical system is arranged adjacent to the lens barrel and on a subject side of a film discharge port of the film cartridge chamber. camera. 2. A camera having an electronic viewfinder for displaying a subject image based on an image signal read from the image pickup device, wherein a battery and a condenser of a stroboscopic light emitting section are respectively the lens barrel and the spool chamber. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the electronic viewfinder is arranged above the battery, and the electronic viewfinder is arranged side by side in the optical axis direction with respect to the battery and the capacitor. 3. A camera provided with a motor for driving the lens barrel, wherein a battery and a condenser of a strobe light emitting section are respectively arranged above the lens barrel and the spool chamber, and the motor is provided. The camera according to claim 1, wherein is arranged so as to be lined up in the optical axis direction with respect to the battery and the capacitor. 4. The camera according to claim 2, wherein the stroboscopic light emitting unit is arranged above the film cartridge chamber.