JP4196032B2 - Camera with slide cover - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a camera having a slide cover that is slidable between a position that covers the front surface of a photographing lens and a position that retracts from the front surface of the photographing lens.
[0002]
[Prior art and its problems]
Various cameras having this type of slide cover have been proposed in the past. However, when the outside of the slide cover is made of metal, there is a problem of how to conceal its end face. In other words, the cutting surface of the metal member is rough, and if this part is exposed, it does not look good, so it is necessary to cover it with a plastic member, etc., but providing such a member causes problems such as an increase in the number of parts and deterioration in assembly work efficiency. Become. There is also a problem that the end face of the metal cover is exposed due to the covering portion being displaced by an external force.
[0003]
An object of the present invention is to provide a camera having a slide cover that can reliably cover the end face of a metal cover while suppressing an increase in the number of parts and a deterioration in assembly work efficiency as much as possible.
[0004]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Referring to the drawings showing an embodiment, the camera according to the invention of claim 1 includes a camera body 10 and a substantially cylindrical member that is externally attached to the camera body 10. And a slide cover 20 that is slidable in the lateral direction of the camera between a closed position that covers the lens and an open position that retracts from the front surface of the photographic lens.
In the invention of claim 1, the slide cover 20 has a metal outer cover 21 and a plastic inner cover 22 inserted and fixed inside the outer cover 21, and the inner cover 22 is the outer cover 21. The cover 22A covers the end surface on the moving direction side with respect to the camera body from the open position to the closed position of the slide cover, thereby solving the above problems.
The camera according to the second aspect of the present invention is between the camera body 10, a closed position that is extrapolated to the camera body 10 and covers the front surface of the photographing lens provided on the camera front surface, and an open position that is retracted from the front surface of the photographing lens. And a slide cover 20 slidably movable in the lateral direction of the camera. The slide cover 20 includes a substantially cylindrical outer cover 21 made of metal and a plastic inner cover 2 inserted and fixed inside the outer cover 21. The outer cover 21 includes a guide member provided on the camera body. A guide member 30 is provided to engage the slide 40 and guide the slide of the slide cover 20, and the inner cover 22 contacts the regulating members BS and BS 1 provided on the camera body 10 to move the slide cover 20 in the opening direction. There are provided restricting members 22a (four in the embodiment) for restricting.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera assembling method in which when the slide cover including the plastic inner cover and the metal outer cover is attached to the camera body, the opening restriction portion provided on the inner cover is the restriction portion of the camera body. The inner cover is attached to the camera body from one end while being elastically deformed so that it can be engaged with the outer cover, and then the slide cover provided on the outer cover is engaged with the guide part of the camera body while the outer cover is attached to the inner cover. It is mounted on the outer surface and the outer cover is fixed to the inner cover.
[0005]
In the section of the means for solving the above-described problem to explain the configuration of the present invention, the drawings of the embodiments are used for easy understanding of the present invention, but the present invention is thereby limited to the embodiments. It is not something.
[0006]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a camera according to the present invention. A lens window 11A, a distance measuring window 11B, a finder objective window / AF auxiliary light window 11C through which a photographing lens is exposed are provided on the front surface of the camera body 10, and a release button 12 is provided on the upper surface, and a figure on the rear surface. As shown in FIG. 4, a display device 13 and various buttons 14 are provided. A cover member 50 and a grip member 60 are attached to one end side of the camera body 10.
[0007]
The slide cover 20 is composed of a metal cylindrical outer cover 21 and an inner cover 22 formed of a plastic mold, and the camera body between the closed position shown in FIG. 2 and the open position shown in FIG. 10 is slidable in the camera lateral direction (AB direction). A light emitting window 21a of a flash device is formed in the front plate portion 21A of the outer cover 21, and a slide guide member 30 is attached to the inner surface of the rear plate portion 21B. As shown in FIGS. 4, 5, and 7, the guide member 30 has a pair of upper and lower convex portions 31 having a length corresponding to the stroke amount of the slide cover 20, and is integrally formed with these convex portions 31. The attachment portion 32 is fixed to the inner surface of the rear plate portion 21B by welding. The welded portions are two places on both ends of the guide member 30 (the welding spot is indicated by reference numeral 204 in FIG. 4). By reducing the number of welded portions, the guide member 30 can be prevented from being deformed and flatness can be ensured. If the flatness is poor, the operation becomes worse when the guide member 40 moves along the convex portion 31. However, in this embodiment, the flatness can be ensured, so that the guide member 40 can be operated smoothly.
[0008]
On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 4, 6, and 7, a guide member 40 that is engaged with the guide member 30 of the outer cover 21 is attached to the center of the back surface of the camera body 10. The guide member 40 has a pair of upper and lower concave portions 41 formed by bending the upper and lower portions of the metal plate, and the upper and lower convex portions 31 of the guide member 30 are slidably engaged with the concave portions 41. The length of the guide member 40 in the lateral direction of the camera is sufficiently shorter than the length of the guide member 30. Therefore, even if the guide member 30 is slightly deformed, the slide cover 20 can be smoothly slid.
[0009]
A flash unit SB (FIG. 7) is attached to the recess 22 b provided on one end side of the inner cover 22, and the irradiation light is irradiated to the subject through the window portion 21 a of the outer cover 21. The inner cover 22 is formed with two upper and lower grooves 22a on the front and rear surfaces of the camera, and four guide pins BS and BS1 inserted through these grooves 22a are screwed into the camera body 10. The When the end surface of the groove 22a in the closing direction (A direction) contacts the head of the guide pins BS and BS1, the movement of the slide cover 20 in the opening direction (B direction) is restricted. Further, a covering portion 22 </ b> A that covers the end surface of the outer cover 21 in the closing direction is formed by integral molding at the closing direction end of the inner cover 22. Further, as indicated by C and D in FIG. 4, the upper and lower surfaces of the inner cover 22 are inclined so as to approach the vertical center axis of the camera body from the end in the closing direction to the end in the opening direction. The front and rear surfaces are inclined so as to approach the central axis in the thickness direction of the camera body from the end in the closing direction to the end in the opening direction. Thereby, the inner cover 22 can be molded.
[0010]
The camera of the present embodiment has a click mechanism for fixing the slide cover 20 in both the open position and the closed position. That is, as shown in FIG. 10, a click ball 71 is disposed on the back of the camera body 10 at the center of the camera in the vertical direction. The click ball 71 passes through the hole of the guide member 40 and is moved behind the camera by the spring 51. Is being energized. On the other hand, in the guide member 30 on the slide cover side, rectangular holes 30A and 30B are formed at two places in the left-right direction, and the click ball 71 falls into these holes 30A. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 11, on the front side of the camera body 10, a click ball 72 is disposed via a spring 81 on the head of a guide pin BS <b> 1 that constitutes a restriction on the opening direction of the slide cover 20. ing. On the other hand, on the front plate 21A of the outer cover 21 constituting the slide cover 20, a plate member 91 is fixed to the upper part of the inner surface, and the click ball 72 falls into the holes 91a and 91b provided at the two left and right sides. ing. Further, a plate member 73 having a spring property is disposed at the lower front portion of the camera body 10, and one end side (the right side in FIG. 3) is fixed, and a projection 73a is formed on the other end side. A plate member 92 having two left and right holes 92a and 92b is fixed to the lower part of the inner surface of the front plate 21A, and the protrusion 73a of the plate member 73 can be engaged with each of the holes 92a and 92b.
[0011]
In FIG. 3, 101 is a power switch, 102 is a main capacitor for light emission of the flash device, and 103 is a flexible printed board for supplying power and light emission signals to the light emission circuit of the flash device. The power switch 101 is turned off when the slide cover 20 is in the closed position and turned on when the slide cover 20 is slid to the open position. In FIG. 4, 201 is a diopter adjusting lever of the finder, 202 is a zoom lever, and 203 is a slide cover receiver constituted by a protrusion. The slide cover receiver 203 receives the inner surface of the slide cover 20 to be slid, thereby preventing the cover 20 from coming into contact with other parts on the back of the camera and being damaged.
[0012]
The procedure for assembling the slide cover 20 to the camera body 10 will be described below.
First, the inner cover 22 of the slide cover 20 is extrapolated to the end in the B direction of the camera body 10 in a single state. At that time, the plastic inner cover 22 is appropriately elastically deformed to get over the convex portion (for example, the guide member 40) of the camera surface, and the heads of the four guide pins BS are the four grooves of the inner cover 22. It is made to insert in 22a. The guide member 40 is exposed from the window portion 22c (FIG. 1) of the inner cover 22. Next, the outer cover 21 is positioned so that the guide member 30 of the outer cover 21 and the guide member 40 of the camera body 10 are aligned, and the upper and lower convex portions 31 of the guide member 30 are inserted into the upper and lower concave portions 41 of the guide member 40. While covering the outer cover 21 with the inner cover 22. At that time, the inner cover 22 is inserted into the opening on the closing direction side of the outer cover 21 from the opening direction, but the outer surface of the inner cover 22 approaches the center of the camera body from the closing direction end to the opening direction end. Therefore, the work of covering the outer cover 21 on the inner cover can be easily performed. As shown in FIG. 8, after the end surface of the outer cover 21 in the closing direction is inserted into the covering portion 22A of the inner cover 22, screws BS2 (FIG. 9) are inserted into the mounting holes formed in the opening direction end surfaces of the outer and inner covers 21, 22. Screw the screws together to fix both covers.
[0013]
In the camera configured as described above, when the slide cover 20 is in the closed position in FIG. 2, the end in the closing direction abuts against the abutting portion of the camera body 10, and movement in the closing direction is restricted. The guide member 40 on the main body 10 side is located at the opening direction end of the guide member 30 on the cover 20 side. At this time, the photographing lens, the finder objective window 11B, and the distance measuring window 11C are covered by the front surface portion 21A of the slide cover 20, and the liquid crystal display device 13 and various operation buttons 14 are covered by the rear surface portion 21B. In addition, the click balls 71 and 72 fall into the holes 30A and 91a, respectively, and the protrusion 73a of the plate member 73 is engaged with the hole 92a. The slide cover 20 is fixed at the closed position by these three click mechanisms, and the play of the slide cover 20 in each direction is prevented. Mainly, the back-and-forth movement of the camera is prevented by the two click mechanisms on the front side of the camera, and the back-and-forth movement is prevented by the three click mechanisms.
[0014]
When a force in the opening direction is applied to the slide cover 20, the click balls 71 and 72 and the protrusion 73 a of the plate member 73 retreat against each spring force, and the guide member 30 slides in the guide member 40. The movement of the slide cover 20 is guided, and the slide cover 20 moves in the opening direction. 3 and 4, when the slide cover 20 reaches the open position, the ends of the four grooves 22a of the inner cover 22 come into contact with the four guide pins BS and BS1 of the camera body 10, and the slide cover The movement of 20 in the opening direction is prevented. At this time, the click balls 71 and 72 fall into the holes 30B and 91b, respectively, and the spherical protrusion 73a of the plate member 73 is engaged with the hole 92b. Therefore, the slide cover 20 is fixed in the open position, and the backlash in each direction of the slide cover 20 is prevented in the same manner as described above.
[0015]
When the slide cover 20 is in the open position, the photographic lens, the finder objective window 11C, the distance measuring window 11B, the liquid crystal display device 13, and the various operation buttons 14 are exposed to the outside and are ready for photographing. As shown in FIG. 4, the guide member 40 is located at the end of the guide member 30 in the closing direction, but remains covered by the slide cover 20 and is not exposed to the outside. The guide member 30 has a length corresponding to the stroke amount of the slide cover 20, but is not exposed to the outside regardless of the position of the cover 20 because it is provided on the inner surface of the slide cover 20. Accordingly, the provision of the guide members 30 and 40 does not impair the appearance of the camera. Furthermore, since the guide member 40 on the main body side can be sufficiently shortened, there is no restriction on the arrangement of the display device and switches on the back side.
[0016]
In the present embodiment, since the guide mechanism including the guide members 30 and 40 is provided in the central portion of the camera in the vertical direction, a single set of guide mechanisms can be used. This is a possible configuration by arranging the guide mechanism on the back side of the camera. Incidentally, if a guide mechanism is provided on the front side of the camera, the guide lens cannot be arranged in the center because the photographic lens is located in the center of the front surface, and it is necessary to provide guide mechanisms at two positions above and below the photographic lens ( If it is only one of the top and bottom, play will occur). In the configuration in which the guide mechanism is provided only at one central portion, it is not necessary to provide the guide mechanism in the upper and lower portions, so that the thickness of the upper and lower portions of the camera can be reduced. Also in the camera of the present embodiment, as can be seen from FIG. 7, the slide cover 20 is thickest at the central portion where the guide mechanism is provided, and is thinner as it goes up and down. In general, even if the central part of the camera is thick to some extent, if the upper and lower parts are thin, the camera will appear thin. This improves the aesthetic appearance.
[0017]
When a force in the front-rear direction of the camera is applied to the slide cover 20, the convex portion 31 of the cover-side guide member 30 comes into contact with the wall surface of the concave portion 41 of the main body-side guide member 40, so that the slide cover 20 is lifted from the front or rear surface of the camera body. The movement of the direction is restricted, thereby preventing backlash of the cover 20 in the front-rear direction. Further, as shown in FIG. 7, the projecting portions 91c and 92c of the slide cover plate members 91 and 92 (having click grooves) can be brought into contact with the upper and lower ends of the plate member 75 constituting the camera body 10. Thus, it is possible to prevent the slide cover 20 from being lifted forward by these abutments.
[0018]
Further, as shown in FIG. 8, the end face in the closing direction of the metal outer cover 21 is covered with the covering portion 22A of the inner cover 22, so that the appearance is not deteriorated. In particular, since the outer cover end is inserted into the recess formed in the covering portion 22A, the covering portion 22A is peeled off even if a force is applied in the direction of the arrow, unlike the structure in which the plastic member is simply applied to the outer cover end surface. The part is not exposed. Further, since the covering portion 22A is formed on the inner cover 22 constituting the opening direction restriction of the slide cover 20, the number of parts can be reduced and the assembly work efficiency can be improved.
[0019]
In the above embodiment, the groove 22a and the guide pins BS, BS1 constitute a restricting mechanism, and the click balls 71, 72, the spherical protrusion 73a, the holes 30A, 30B, 91A, 91B, 92A, 92 constitute the click mechanism. .
[0020]
Although the outer cover 21 is made of metal, it may be made of a material other than metal (for example, plastic).
[0021]
【The invention's effect】
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the slide cover is constituted by a metal outer cover and a plastic inner cover, and the inner cover is provided with a covering portion that covers the end surface of the outer cover in the closing direction. Therefore, the number of parts can be reduced and the assembly work efficiency can be improved. In particular, if the outer cover end is inserted into the recess formed in the cover, unlike the structure in which the plastic member is simply applied to the outer cover end surface, the cover is peeled off even if force is applied in the direction of the arrow. Will not be exposed.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the guide mechanism for guiding the movement of the slide cover is provided at a substantially central portion in the vertical direction of the camera, and the restriction mechanism for restricting the movement of the slide cover in the opening direction is provided above and below the guide mechanism. Therefore, unlike the case where the restricting mechanism is provided only at the center in the vertical direction of the camera, the slide cover in the open position does not tilt or play.
According to the invention of claim 3, the click mechanism for fixing the slide cover in the closed position and the open position is provided at two positions above and below the photographing lens on the front surface of the camera body and at one position at the center on the camera rear side. Therefore, the slide cover does not move undesirably from the closed position or the open position, and backlash in each direction of the slide cover can be prevented by the three click mechanisms. If at least one of the click mechanisms is provided in the regulating mechanism of the slide cover, it is not necessary to secure a separate arrangement position of the click mechanism, and space efficiency is good.
According to the invention of claim 5, the slide cover is constituted by a substantially cylindrical outer cover made of metal and an inner cover made of plastic, the slide cover guide member is provided on the outer cover 21, and the slide cover is provided on the inner cover. Since the opening direction restriction is provided, the assembly work efficiency can be improved by attaching the inner cover to the camera body while elastically deforming the inner cover, and then covering the inner cover with the outer cover.
According to the method of the invention of claim 6, the inner cover is attached to the camera body from one end side while elastically deforming the inner cover so that the opening restriction part provided on the inner cover can be engaged with the restriction part of the camera body. Since the outer cover is mounted on the outer surface of the inner cover while the slide guide portion provided on the cover is engaged with the guide portion of the camera body, the outer cover is fixed to the inner cover. Efficiency can be improved.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a camera according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a front view of the camera, showing a state in which a slide cover is in a closed position.
FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2, showing a state in which the slide cover is in the open position.
FIG. 4 is a rear view of the camera, showing a state in which the slide cover is in an open position.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an end portion of a slide cover in a closing direction.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing one end side of the camera body.
FIG. 7 is a side sectional view of the camera.
FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing an end portion in the closing direction of the slide cover.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view for explaining how to attach the slide cover to the camera body.
FIG. 10 is a sectional view showing details of a click mechanism.
FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing details of another click mechanism.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Camera body 20 Slide cover 21 Outer cover 21A Front plate 21B Rear plate 22 Inner cover 22A Cover part 22a Groove 30 Cover side guide member 30A, 30B Hole 31 Convex part 40 Main body side guide member 41 Concave part 71, 72 Click ball 73 Plate member 81 Spring 91, 92 Plate member 91a, 91b, 92a, 92b Hole BS, BS1 Screw

Claims (3)

The camera body,
It consists of a substantially cylindrical member that is externally attached to the camera body, and slides in the lateral direction of the camera between a closed position that covers the front surface of the photographing lens provided on the front surface of the camera and an open position that retracts from the front surface of the photographing lens. With a possible slide cover,
The slide cover has a metal outer cover and a plastic inner cover that is inserted and fixed inside the outer cover, and the inner cover is in the open position of the slide cover of the outer cover. A camera having a slide cover, wherein the camera has a covering portion that covers an end face on the moving direction side with respect to the camera body from the closed position to the closed position. The camera body,
A slide cover that is slidable in the lateral direction of the camera between a closed position that covers the front surface of the photographic lens provided on the front surface of the camera and is attached to the front surface of the camera; and an open position that retracts from the front surface of the photographic lens. ,
The slide cover is composed of a substantially cylindrical outer cover made of metal and a plastic inner cover that is inserted and fixed inside the outer cover.
The outer cover is provided with a guide member that engages with a guide member provided on the camera body to guide the slide of the slide cover, and the inner cover is in contact with a restriction member provided on the camera body. A camera having a slide cover, wherein a restriction member for restricting movement of the slide cover in the opening direction is provided . When attaching a slide cover consisting of a plastic inner cover and a metal outer cover to the camera body,
  Attach to the camera body from one end side while elastically deforming the inner cover so that the opening restriction part provided on the inner cover can engage with the restriction part of the camera body,
  Then, the outer cover is mounted on the outer surface of the inner cover while the slide guide portion provided on the outer cover is engaged with the guide portion of the camera body, and the outer cover is fixed to the inner cover. Camera assembly method.

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