JPH0638082A - Lens cover - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the lens cover which can reduce a housing space at the time of opening the lens cover and can miniaturize a video camera. CONSTITUTION:Concerning the lens cover to open/close the front face of a lens 6 by turning an operation dial 5, the front face of the lens 6 is closed by developing two semicircular lens cover bodies 7 and 8 in the state of closing the lens and the front face of the lens 6 can be opened by overlapping the two semicircular lens cover bodies 7 and 8 in the state of opening the lens.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a lens cover with a built-in camera which opens and closes the front surface of a lens such as a video camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a camera-equipped lens cover in a video camera has a disk shape and is generally arranged on the front side of the lens on the object side. The lens cover is pivotally moved around the support shaft to close and open the front surface of the lens.

[0003]

However, in the conventional lens cover thus constructed, when the front surface of the lens is opened, a storage space corresponding to the size of the lens cover is required in the main body of the video camera. This has been an obstacle to the miniaturization of video cameras.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to obtain a lens cover which can reduce the storage space when the lens cover is opened and which can downsize the video camera. And

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, in the lens cover according to the present invention, two semicircular lens cover bodies are rotatably supported by a support shaft portion.
The single lens cover body is configured such that the front surface of the lens is closed in a state of being developed into a substantially circular shape, and the front surface of the lens is opened in a state of being stacked.

[0006]

In the lens cover of the present invention constructed as described above, two semicircular lens cover bodies are superposed when the front surface of the lens is opened, so that the lens cover can be stored when opened. The space required for the lens cover is half, and the video camera can be downsized.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an external perspective view of, for example, an 8 mm video camera to which the lens cover of the present invention is applied.
1 is a camera body, 2 is a lens barrel in which a lens optical system is housed, 3 is an eyepiece, 4 is an operation switch,
For example, the camera mode and the video mode can be switched. An operation dial 5 is for operating the lens cover of the present invention in which the front surface of the lens of the objective lens (hereinafter, simply referred to as a lens) 6 located at the forefront of the lens optical system in the lens barrel 2 is opened and closed. is there.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the lens cover in this example, and the specific configuration will be described below. Reference numerals 7 and 8 denote two upper and lower lens cover bodies each formed in a semicircular shape, and both lens cover bodies 7 and 8 have a circular shape in a developed state and have a size that completely covers the lens 6 described above. And is arranged in front of the lens.
Further, the opposing edge portions of both lens cover bodies 7 and 8 are formed on slopes 7a and 8a as shown in FIG. 3, and in the expanded state, both slopes 7a and 8a are abutted to form lens cover bodies 7 and 8. It is developed in the same plane.

In one lens cover body 7, the shaft pin 11 projecting from the camera body 1 is pivotally supported by the support shaft portion 10 of the frame 9 integrally formed on one side of the lens cover body 7. Frame 12 integrally formed on the other side
And the frame 1 integrally formed with the other lens cover body 8.
3 and 3 are supported by a shaft 14. A cam surface 15 is formed on the surface of the frame 12 of the one lens cover 7 and on the side of the other lens cover 8 opposite to the frame 13 as shown in FIG. Further, a regulation piece 16 is provided on the outer end of the frame 13 of the other lens cover 8.

In the one lens cover body 7 described above, a coil spring 19 is stretched between a locking portion 17 provided on the frame 9 thereof and a locking portion 18 provided on the camera body 1 together with the lens cover body 7. The lens cover body 8 is spring-biased in the closing direction of the lens 6. A spring 20 is attached to a shaft 14 around which the lens cover body 8 is supported, and both ends of the spring 20 are attached to the frames 12, 1 of the lens cover bodies 7, 8, respectively.
The lens cover body 8 is spring-biased in a direction away from the lens cover body 7 by being locked to pins 12a and 13a provided on the lens cover body 7. It is locked by an engaging member (not shown) and does not open. In addition, the lens cover body 7 in the unfolded state,
The spring force of the coil spring 19 acts on the urging member 8 to rotate it counterclockwise, but in order to position the lens cover bodies 7 and 8 at the lens center, the outer edge portion of the lens cover body 8 is abutted by the stopper 21. Position is regulated.

In the lens cover constructed as described above, the outer peripheral surface of the operation dial 5 described above in which the groove-shaped operation portion 22 formed on the outer end portion of the frame 9 of the lens cover body 7 rotates about the shaft 23. The operation pin projecting from is engaged with 24. The operation dial 5 is rotatable between the “OFF” position and the “CAM” position displayed on the camera body 1.

Next, the opening / closing operation of the lens cover of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2 and the operation state diagrams of FIGS. Lens Cover Opening Operation With the front surface of the lens closed by the lens cover bodies 7 and 8 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the operation dial 5 is rotated counterclockwise from the “OFF” position to the “CAM” side. When operated, the lens cover body 7 moves the end portion of the shaft 14 into the guide groove 25 formed in the camera body 1 with the shaft pin 11 as a fulcrum of rotation through the operation portion 22 engaged with the pin 24 of the operation dial 5. Rotate along the clockwise direction. By rotating the lens cover body 7 together with the lens cover body 8 in the unfolded state, the lens cover body 8 is rotated as shown in FIG.
The lens cover bodies 7 and 8 start to open from the front surface of the.

The opening operation of the lens cover bodies 7 and 8 proceeds,
When the lens cover body 7 comes to a position completely removed from the front surface of the lens 6, as shown in FIG. 6, the regulation piece 16 provided at the tip of the frame 13 of the lens cover body 8 contacts the regulation member 26. At this time, the lens cover body 8 is rotated counterclockwise against the spring force of the spring 20 about the shaft 14 by the rotational force of the lens cover body 7 in the opening direction. Specifically, the rotation of the lens cover body 8 causes the frame 13 of the lens cover body 8 to ride on the cam surface 15 formed on the frame 12 of the one lens cover body 7,
Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, the lens cover body 8 is rotated in the counterclockwise direction while being overlapped on the lens cover body 7, and the lens cover body 8 is released from the front surface of the lens 6. Thus, in the state where the lens cover body 8 is completely opened from the front surface of the lens 6, the lens cover body 8 is opened in a state in which the lens cover body 8 substantially overlaps and overlaps with the lens cover body 7 as shown in FIG. The lens cover bodies 7 and 8 are urged in the opening direction by the spring force of the coil spring 19, and the lens 6 is maintained in the open state.

Closing Operation of Lens Cover When the operation dial 5 is rotated counterclockwise from the “CAM” position shown in FIG. 2 to the “OFF” side in the lens open state shown in FIG. 8, the lens opening operation described above is reversed. The action is taken. That is, first, the lens cover body 8 starts to rotate in the clockwise direction by the restoring force of the spring 20 (FIG. 7), and thereafter, the lens cover body 8 descends from the cam surface 15 of the lens cover body 7 and the lens cover body 7. The unfolding operation is performed up to the same plane state (FIG. 6). The lens cover body 7 has the shaft pin 11
The lens 6 is rotated counterclockwise about the rotation center (FIG. 5), and the lens 6 is closed by the lens cover bodies 7 and 8 (FIG. 4).

As described above, in the lens cover according to the present invention, when the lens is closed, the two semicircular lens cover bodies 7 and 8 are in the developed state to close the front surface of the lens, and when the lens is open, the semicircular shape. Since the two lens cover bodies 7 and 8 are overlapped so that the front surface of the lens can be opened, the lens cover storage space when the lens cover is opened is half the space of the lens cover. There is an advantage that the volume of 1 is small and the video camera can be downsized. Also,
The opening / closing operation of the two lens cover bodies 7 and 8 is small in movement of the opening / closing operation of the lens cover body 7, and therefore, the appearance of the lens cover body 8 is good because it seems that only the lens cover body 8 moves.

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of the opening / closing mechanism in the lens cover of the present invention. Basically, the two lens cover bodies 7 and 8 each having a semicircular shape are the same as in the case described above, and the frame 2 of one lens cover body 7 is used.
A shaft 28 projecting from 7 is inserted into a shaft hole 30 formed in a frame 29 of the other lens cover body 8 and rotatable.
The lens cover bodies 7 and 8 are
The rotation restricting piece 31 provided on the outer peripheral portion of the shaft 28 on the side and the rotation restricting piece 32 provided around the shaft hole 30 on the lens cover body 8 side contact with each other to prevent rotation beyond the expanded state. It can be rotated by a predetermined angle in the overlapping direction. Further, the same cam surface 3 as described above is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the shaft 28 on the side of the one lens cover body 7.
3 is formed, and the frame 2 on the side of the other lens cover body 8 is formed.
It is possible to ride on side 9. Incidentally, 34 is a pin projecting from the frame 27 of the lens cover body 7, and is in contact with the frame 29 of the other lens cover body 8 in the expanded state.

The operation of the lens cover constructed as described above is performed in a state where the front surface of the lens 6 shown by the phantom line is closed by the lens cover bodies 7 and 8 in the expanded state.
When the operation pin 35 protruding to the outer end portion of the frame 27 of the lens cover body 7 is rotated by an operation dial (not shown), the lens cover body 7 rotates about the shaft 28 as a rotation center, and the cam surface 33 acts. Overlaps with the lens cover body 8. When the lens cover body 7 rotates by a predetermined angle and the rotation regulating pieces 31, 32 of both lens cover bodies 7, 8 come into contact with each other, one lens cover body 7 rotates and the other lens cover body 8 also rotates. The lens is rotated and the front surface of the lens is opened.

The lens cover that operates as described above is
Unlike the above-described operation of the lens cover, one lens cover body 7 is started from the state in which the front surface of the lens is closed.
After the lens is opened, the front surface of the lens is opened in a state where the two lens cover bodies 7 and 8 are overlapped with each other.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and shown in the drawings, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the turning operation of the operation dial 5 may include not only the opening / closing operation of the lens cover but also a switch function for turning on / off the power of the camera in conjunction with the turning operation of the operation dial 5. . Further, although the lens cover of the video camera has been described in the embodiment, the present invention can be widely applied as a lens cover of a film type camera.

[0020]

As described above, in the lens cover of the present invention, two semicircular lens cover bodies are rotatably supported by the support shaft portion, and the two lens cover bodies are substantially circular. Close the front surface of the lens in the state of being deployed to
Since the lenses are configured to open the lens front surface in a superposed state, two semicircular lens cover bodies are superposed in a state in which the lens front surfaces are opened. Since the cover storage space is half the space of the lens cover, the volume of the camera body is small and the size of the camera can be reduced accordingly.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a video camera including a lens cover of this example.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a lens cover of this example.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of two lens cover bodies.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the lens cover of this example in a closed state.

FIG. 5 is a front view of the lens cover of the present example during operation.

FIG. 6 is a front view of the lens cover of the present example during operation.

FIG. 7 is a front view of the lens cover of the present example during operation.

FIG. 8 is a front view of the lens cover of this example in an open state.

FIG. 9 is a front view of another example of the lens cover.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Video camera main body 2 Lens barrel 5 Operation dial 6 Lens 7,8 Lens cover body 9,12,13 Frame 11 Axis pin 14 Axis 15 Cam surface 16 Restriction piece 19 Coil spring 20 Spring 22 Operation part 24 Operation pin 26 Restriction member 27, 29 frame 28 shaft 30 shaft hole 31, 32 rotation restricting piece 33 cam surface

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. Two semicircular lens cover bodies are rotatably supported by a support shaft portion, and the two lens cover bodies close the front surface of the lens in a state of being developed into a substantially circular shape. , And a lens cover characterized in that the front surface of the lens is opened in a superposed state. 2. A cam portion is provided on a support shaft portion of the lens cover body, the two lens cover bodies are developed on the same plane when the front surface of the lens is closed, and the cam portion is formed by the cam portion when the front surface of the lens is open. The lens cover according to claim 1, wherein the two lens cover bodies overlap each other.