JP2795291B2 - Video camera lens cover - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a lens cover for a video camera, and more particularly to a lens cover with a built-in camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a compact camera has a small lens diameter and a photographic lens does not protrude from the camera body. Therefore, a lens cover is integrally provided in the camera body, and the camera can be opened and closed by one touch with an open / close button. Built-in lens covers have become mainstream.

On the other hand, most lens covers of video cameras are of a type that can be attached to and detached from a photographic lens. This is because, in the case of a video camera, the aperture of the taking lens is large and the taking lens protrudes from the camera body, so that there is no space for providing a lens cover with a built-in camera.

[0004]

However, the detachable lens cover is difficult to attach to and detach from the taking lens, and the lens cover is connected to the camera body to prevent the lens cover from being lost. However, in this case, there is a problem that the lens cover becomes an obstacle during shooting.

In recent years, a relatively long zoom lens has been arranged on the side of a camera body having a VTR section and the like, thereby shortening the overall length of the camera.
There is TR. In the case of this type of camera-integrated VTR,
Although it is possible to secure a space for providing a lens cover with a built-in camera, it is necessary to reduce the thickness of the built-in lens cover and the like so that the overall length of the camera is not lengthened.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a lens cover with a built-in video camera that can be opened and closed with a single touch.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a video camera in which a photographic lens is arranged on a side of a video camera body so as to be substantially flush with a front surface of the video camera body. , A slide-type lens cover, a video camera body, and a front surface of a photographic lens are provided, and the lens cover is movably guided between a front position of the photographic lens and a retracted position retracted from the photographic lens. A cover holder, wherein the cover holder itself and the lens cover are formed so as not to protrude from an outer range of the front surface of the video camera body and the photographing lens; and the lens cover is retracted from the front surface of the photographing lens. A first spring biasing in the direction, and the lens cover moving to the front of the taking lens against the biasing force of the first spring; The lock lever is rotated in the locking direction by the urging force of the spring, and the tapered portion at the tip of the lever comes into contact with the rear end of the lens cover to lock the lens cover, and the lock lever is urged in the locking direction. The second spring; and a lock release means for rotating the lock lever in an unlocking direction against the urging force of the second spring. The lens cover is locked by the lock lever. When a certain force or more is applied in the unlock direction, the rear end of the lens cover moves while pushing down the lock lever along the tapered portion of the lock lever to release the lock, and the lock lever and the second It is characterized in that two springs are formed.

[0008]

According to the present invention, on the side of the video camera body,
The present invention is applied to a video camera in which a photographing lens is arranged so as to be substantially flush with the front surface of the video camera body, that is, a video camera in which a camera built-in lens cover can be provided on the front of the camera, and the lens cover has a minimum space It is a slide type that can be opened and closed with.

The lens cover is always urged in the opening direction by the first spring, the lock lever is urged in the locking direction by the second spring, and the tapered portion at the tip of the lever contacts the engaging portion of the lens cover. Touching and locking the lens cover. Here, when the lock lever is rotated in the unlocking direction by the unlocking means, the tapered portion at the tip of the lock lever is disengaged from the engagement portion of the lens cover, and the lens cover is opened in a fully open state. Also, when a certain force or more is applied to the locked lens cover in the unlock direction, the engagement portion of the lens cover moves while pushing down the lock lever along the tapered portion at the tip of the lock lever, and the lock is released. It is released.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a lens cover of a video camera according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG.
1 is a perspective view of a camera-integrated VTR provided with a lens cover of a video camera according to the present invention. This camera-integrated VTR is a video camera body 10 having a VTR section and the like.
A zoom lens (photographing lens) 12 is arranged on the side of the lens. A front surface of the video camera body 10 and a front surface of the photographing lens 12 are substantially flush with each other, and a front panel 22 in which a slide-type lens cover 20 and a converter lens (not shown) are accommodated is mounted on the front surfaces. Have been.

The lens cover 20 is spring-biased in the opening direction, and is released to a fully open state by pressing the lock release button 24 to release the lock. Further, the lens cover 20 in the opened state is locked again by being pulled out to a predetermined position using the knob 20A.
On the other hand, the converter lens is retracted from the front position (position where the optical axis coincides) of the photographing lens 12 and the photographing lens 12 by a slide knob (not shown) connected to the converter lens provided below the front panel 22. It can be moved between the evacuation position. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 14 denotes an electronic viewfinder, and 16 denotes a microphone.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the structure of a lens cover, a converter lens and the like housed in the front panel 22. In the figure, 31 is a converter lens (wide converter lens), 40 is a cover holder,
50 is a base. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the cover holder 40 and the base 50 of FIG.
FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the base 50.

As shown in FIG. 3, the lens cover 20 has two guide pins 20C (only one is shown in FIG. 3) inside the guide portion 20B and is parallel to the guide portion 20B. A simple guide piece 20D is formed. The guide portion 20B and the guide piece 20D sandwich the upper portion of the cover holder 40 and have two guide pins 20C.
Is guided by the guide groove 40A on the upper part of the cover holder 40, so that the lens cover 20 is cantilevered to the cover holder 40 and is slidably guided.

At the bottom of the cover holder 40, a base 50 is provided.
Is attached. Note that these cover holders 40
A converter lens unit is slidably disposed between the base and the base 50 as described later. As shown in FIG. 4, the base 50 mainly has a base plate 51 and a guide member 52, and a lever 53, a bush 54, a torsion spring 55, and a slider 56 are provided between the base plate 51 and the guide member 52. Are arranged.

That is, a pin 52A is implanted on the back surface (not shown) of the guide member 52, and the lever 53 and the bush 54 are inserted into the pin 52A. A coil portion of a torsion spring 55 is attached to a distal end of the lever 53, and the distal end of the torsion spring 55 can be engaged with a slider 56. The slider 56 is a guide portion 56
A, the guide portion 56A is slidably disposed with respect to the guide member 52 by sandwiching the protrusion 52B of the guide member 52, and is urged in the direction of arrow B by the torsion spring 55. .

A pin 56B is implanted on the upper surface of the slider 56, and the pin 56B is attached to the lens cover 20.
Can be engaged with the U-shaped projecting piece 20E (see FIG. 3). As a result, the lens cover 20 has the arrow B
Direction, i.e., in the opening direction. As shown in FIG. 2, the converter lens unit mainly includes a wide converter lens (concave lens) 31, a lens holder 32, and a lens pressing frame 33.

The upper and lower ends of the lens holder 32 are slidably guided between the cover holder 40 and the base 50. The projecting piece 32A provided on the lens holder 32 is connected to a slide knob 26 provided on the front panel 22. The lens holder 32 can slide by operating the slide knob 26. .

The lens holder 32 has a hole through which a ball (not shown) for a click operation can roll, and a leaf spring 3 for pressing the ball toward the guide member 52.
5 (FIG. 3) are provided. The guide member 52 has V-grooves 52C and 52D into which the ball falls (FIG. 4).
Are formed. Therefore, when the ball falls into the V groove 52C or 52D with the movement of the lens holder 32, the lens holder 32 performs a click operation. The ball falls into the V groove 52C when the wide converter lens 31 moves to the front position of the photographing lens, and falls into the V groove 52D when it moves to the retracted position.

As shown in FIG. 2, the wide converter lens 31 is sandwiched between a lens holder 32 and a lens holding frame 33, and is fixed by hexagon socket screws 34, 34. The wide converter lens 31 can be replaced or maintained through the opening 22A of the front panel 22. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, the lock lever 42 connects the lens cover 20 to the torsion spring 55.
It locks immovably against the bias of (Fig. 4),
It is disposed so as to be rotatable about a support shaft 43. A leaf spring 44 is provided on the lower surface of the lock lever 42,
The lock lever 42 is urged by the leaf spring 44 in the lock direction (clockwise in FIG. 3). The lock lever 42 has two tapered portions 42A and 42B. When the lens cover 20 moves in the closing direction, the lower surface of the engaging portion 20F of the lens cover 20 moves along the tapered portion 42A. Therefore, the lock lever 42 is pushed down against the urging force of the leaf spring 44, and when the lens cover 42 reaches the fully closed position,
The engaging portion 20F of the lens cover 20B falls into the tapered portion 42B, whereby the lens cover 20 is locked.

The lock release lever 45 rotates the lock lever 42 in the unlocking direction to release the lock of the lens cover 20, and is provided rotatably about a support shaft 46. A coil spring 47 is disposed between the lock release lever 45 and the base plate 51 so that the tip end 45A of the lock release lever 45 abuts on the base plate 51 by the coil spring 47 (FIG. 3). (Counterclockwise direction above).

The front end 45A of the lock release lever 45 can contact the rear end 42C of the lock lever 42, and the rear end 45B of the lock release lever 45 is shown in FIG. It can be pressed by the lock release button 24. Thereby, the rear end portion 45B of the lock release lever 45 is pressed by the lock release button 24 against the urging force of the coil spring 47, thereby pushing up the rear end portion 42C of the lock lever 42.
As a result, the tapered portion 42B at the tip of the lever is pushed down,
The lock of the lens cover 20 by the lock lever 42 can be released.

According to the above configuration, the lock release button 24
The lens cover 20 can be opened with a single touch by a pressing operation, and the opened lens cover 20 is pulled out using the knob 20A, so that the photographic lens 1 can be opened again.
2 can be covered. Also, the lens cover 20
Is engaged with the tapered portion 42B at the tip of the lever of the lock lever 42, so that when a certain force or more is applied to the locked lens cover 20 in the unlocking direction, the engagement portion 20F of the lens cover 20 20A is lock lever 4
The lock lever 42 moves while pushing down the lock lever 42 along the tapered portion 42B at the tip of the lever 2 to release the lock.

In FIG. 2, 61 is a microphone unit, 62 is a microphone ground plate, 63 is a board, 64
Is a switch mount, and 65 is a jack cover. The cover holder 40, the base 50 and the like are provided with screws 66A, 6
6B, and is fixed in the front panel 22 by screws 66A, 66C, 66D, 6E.
Is fixed to the video camera body 10.

[0024]

As described above, according to the lens cover of the video camera according to the present invention, the lens cover of the video camera can be opened and closed with a single touch by the lens cover having a built-in camera. In addition, when a certain force or more is applied to the locked lens cover in the unlocking direction, the lock of the lens cover is released, so that the lock mechanism can be prevented from being damaged.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a camera-integrated VTR provided with a lens cover of a video camera according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a structure in a front panel of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a cover holder, a base and the like of FIG.
It is the perspective view seen from the direction.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the base of FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Video camera main body 12 ... Photographing lens 20 ... Lens cover 20F ... Engagement part 22 ... Front panel 24 ... Lock release button 40 ... Cover holder 42 ... Lock lever 42B ... Taper part 44 ... Leaf spring 45 ... Lock release lever 47 ... Coil spring 50 ... Base 55 ... Torsion spring

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A video camera in which a shooting lens is arranged on a side portion of a video camera main body so as to be substantially flush with a front surface of the video camera main body, wherein: a slide-type lens cover; A cover holder disposed on the front surface of the lens and movably guiding the lens cover between a front position of the photographing lens and a retracted position retracted from the photographing lens ;
Cover is in front of the video camera body and the taking lens.
Cover housing that is formed so as not to protrude from the
A first spring for urging the lens cover in a direction to withdraw the lens cover from the front surface of the taking lens; and a lens spring for urging the lens cover against the urging force of the first spring.
When moved to the front of the shadow lens, the urging force of the second spring
I rotated in the locking direction, the tapered portion of the lever front end to the rear end of the lens cover and a lock lever for locking the lens cover in contact, said second biasing the locking lever in the locking direction A spring; and unlocking means for rotating the lock lever in an unlocking direction against a biasing force of the second spring, wherein the lens cover locked by the lock lever is provided.
When a certain amount of force is applied to the
The rear end of the lens cover is the taper of the lock lever.
Move the lock lever down along the
To release the lock, the lock lever and the second lever
A lens cover for a video camera, wherein the lens cover is configured .