JPH0743593A - Driving device for zoom lens - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To propose a driving device for a zoom lens capable of moving the zoom lens to a photographing area and a specified housing position by manual operation and recognizing the photographing prepared state and a non- photographing state with the sense of touch. CONSTITUTION:This device is constituted of lens moving means 16, 17, 18 and 31 moving the zoom lenses 23 and 26 not only to the photographing area but also to other housing position interlocked with the manual operation of a zoom button 12; a mechanical restriction means giving the feeling of restriction to a finger by which the manual operation is performed when the zoom lenses 23 and 26 withdraw from the housing position and enter the photographing area and when they move toward the housing position and withdraw from the photographing area; and a power source switch means for a photographing equipment circuit which is turned on when the zoom lenses 23 and 26 enter the photographing area and turned off when they withdraw from the photographing area.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a camera for photography,
For preparing for shooting equipment such as small-sized shooting machines and video cameras
The present invention relates to a drive device that zooms a lens by manual operation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, compact cameras having a zoom lens have become mainstream. In addition, among the cameras of this type, there has already been proposed a camera in which the lens barrel is housed in the retracted position when the photographing is not performed to achieve compactness.

There are two types of compact cameras equipped with zoom lenses, one for zooming by manual operation and the other for zooming by electric drive. In the former camera, the lens barrel is in the wide position in a normal state (non-shooting state) in which shooting is not performed, and the camera is ready for shooting by turning on the main switch (power switch of the circuit in the camera), and then manually operated. It is configured to zoom in and shoot.

In the latter camera, the lens barrel is in the retracted position in a non-photographing state, and when the main switch is turned on, the lens barrel is electrically driven from the retracted position to the photographing preparation position (for example, the wide position). The zooming is configured to be electrically driven according to the operation of the photographer.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Manual operation
The camera for zooming is advantageous in terms of quietness because there is no operation noise of an electric drive source such as a motor, but it is inconvenient to carry because the lens barrel is always protruding.

It is conceivable that the lens barrel is retracted in the non-photographing state. However, it is possible to electrically and mechanically set the photographing preparation state in which the lens barrel is in the wide position and the non-photographing state in which the lens barrel is retracted. There are various difficult problems such as a configuration for surely determining and a configuration in which the photographer can determine by hand whether the camera is in the shooting preparation state or in the non-shooting state.
There is no camera that can retract the lens barrel as a camera that zooms manually.

In a camera that zooms by electric drive, since the lens barrel is retracted during normal operation, the camera body is thin and convenient for carrying, and the lens barrel is ready for shooting or is not shooting. It is also possible to easily electrically determine whether or not there is a state.

However, since this camera is electrically driven,
There is a problem in that there is a design limitation to the compactness of the camera body in that it requires a built-in space for the motor in addition to the disadvantage of quietness due to the operating noise of the camera. .

In view of the above situation, the present invention allows the zoom lens to be manually moved to a photographing area and a predetermined storage position, and to recognize a photographing preparation state and a non-photographing state by hand. It is an object of the present invention to develop a driving device for a zoom lens that can achieve the

[0010]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in the present invention, in a zoom lens driving device provided in a photographing device for zooming by manual operation, the zoom lens is linked with the manual operation. Lens moving means for moving to the storage position in addition to the movement of the photographing area, and when the zoom lens advances from the storage position into the photographing area and when the zoom lens moves toward the storage position and exits from the photographing area. It is composed of a mechanical moderating means for giving a feeling of moderation to a manually operated finger, and a power switch means of a photographing device circuit which is turned on when the zoom lens enters the photographing area and turned off when the zoom lens exits the photographing area. Characterized by
We propose a driving device for mullens.

[0011]

In the driving apparatus of the present invention, the lens moving means interlocks with the manual operation for the preparation for photographing to move the zoom lens from the storage position to the photographing region (photographable range). Further, the lens moving means causes the zoom lens extended to the photographing area to perform a zooming operation according to a manual zooming operation.
Further, the lens moving means moves the zoom lens from the photographing area to the storage position in association with the manual storage operation of the lens.

Further, in this lens driving device, the power switch means is turned on when the zoom lens is extended to the photographing area as described above. As a result, the photographing device circuit is ready for photographing. When the zoom lens moves to the storage position as described above, the power switch means is turned off when the zoom lens leaves the photographing area.
Turn off the power supply to the imaging device circuit.

Further, in this lens driving device, when the zoom lens is extended from the storage position and enters the photographing area, the moderating means operates. From this, it can be recognized as a hand feeling that the camera is ready for shooting. Further, when the zoom lens is housed, the moderating means operates when the zoom lens leaves the photographing area. Therefore, it can be recognized as a hand feeling that the non-photographing state is set.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a front view of a camera including a lens barrel having a zoom lens structure, FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional side view of the zoom lens barrel, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG.

In FIG. 1, 10 is a camera, 11 is a lens barrel, 12 is a zoom button, 13 is a front cover of the camera,
Reference numeral 14 is a finder window, and 15 is a flash emission window. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the lens barrel 11 has a superposed structure of a fixed barrel 16, a drive barrel 17, a movable barrel 18, and the like.

The fixed barrel 16 is a cylindrical body, and a flange portion 16a provided on the rear portion thereof is fixed to the camera body 19 by screwing. In addition, the fixed barrel 16 is provided with a cam hole 16b formed in a spiral shape around the optical axis 20, and
A helicoid screw (female) 16c is provided on the inner surface thereof.

The drive cylinder 17 is a cylindrical body rotatably mounted in the fixed cylinder 16, and a helicoid screw (male) 17a is provided on the outer peripheral surface thereof.
Is screwed into the helicoid screw 16c of the fixed barrel 16.
Further, the drive cylinder 17 is provided with a roller-type cam follower 21 which penetrates the cam hole 16b of the fixed cylinder 16, and the cam follower 21 is driven to move in the cam hole 16b. The cylinder 17 is rotated.

A helicoid screw (female) 17b is provided on the inner surface of the drive cylinder 17 described above.
A helicoid screw (male) 18a provided on the outer peripheral surface of the moving barrel 18 is screwed onto the 7b.

The movable barrel 18 is a cylindrical body housed in the drive barrel 17, and is kept non-rotated by a guide mechanism (not shown). As the drive barrel 17 rotates, it remains non-rotated in the optical axis 20 direction. It is designed to move.

A shutter control mechanism 22 and a front lens group 23 are attached to the moving barrel 18. The shutter control mechanism 22 controls opening / closing of the shutter 24. Further, the lens barrel 11 is provided with an aperture 25, and is configured to manually operate an aperture setting ring described later to set the aperture.

Further, a rectilinear hole 18c is provided in the diameter-reduced portion 18b formed at the rear of the moving barrel 18, and the rear lens group 2 is provided.
Roller type cam follower 28 provided on the support frame 27 of No. 6
The rear lens group 26 is independently displaced in the optical axis direction along the rectilinear hole 18c.

It should be noted that the cam follower 28 penetrates the rectilinear hole 18c and projects into the cam hole 29a of the rotating cylinder 29, and the rotation of the rotating cylinder 29 causes the cam follower 28 to move into the cam hole 29.
driven by a. In other words, the rotating barrel 29 is configured to rotate in the direction around the optical axis 20 by receiving the rotational force of the drive barrel 17 by the connecting mechanism (not shown), and the rotation of the rotating barrel 29 causes the cam follower 28 to move into the cam hole. The rear lens group 26 is driven by 29a and moves along the rectilinear hole 18c to displace the rear lens group 26 in the optical axis direction.

On the other hand, an aperture setting ring 30 is provided on the outer surface side of the front end portion of the fixed barrel 16, and the aperture setting ring 3 is provided.
A lens drive ring 31 is provided on the outer peripheral surface side of 0. The lens driving ring 31 constitutes a lens moving means together with the driving barrel 17 and the moving barrel 18 described above. The lens drive ring 31 and the front cover of the camera
A ring receiver 45 is provided between the members 13. The aperture setting ring 30 has a configuration in which an operation ring 32 displaying the aperture scale and an interlocking ring 33 that interlocks the aperture 25 are integrally connected. The interlocking ring 33 is provided with a sliding electric contact piece or the like for generating an electric signal according to the aperture setting value.

The lens drive ring 31 is constructed by integrally connecting a button drive ring 34 and a gear interlocking ring 35. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the tongue portion 35a protruding from the gear interlocking ring 35 is fitted into the concave portion 34a formed on the inner surface of the button drive ring 34 to form an integral structure.

Further, a zoom button 12 for manual operation is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the button drive ring 34, and the gear interlocking ring 35 is integrally formed with the forked interlocking arm 35b as detailed in FIG. There is. The cam follower 21 is inserted between the arms of the bifurcated interlocking arm 35b, and the cam follower 21 is driven by the rotational force of the gear interlocking ring 35.

As can be seen from FIG. 3, the gear interlocking ring 35 described above is provided with a click concave portion 35d on a raised portion 35c formed on the outer periphery thereof, and a gear 35e is provided on the outer peripheral portion thereof. The clip concave portion 35d, together with the small ball 36, constitutes a click stop mechanism as a moderating means.

The small ball 36 is held by the support arm 37a, and is constantly subjected to the pressing force of the leaf spring 38 in the direction of falling into the clip recess 35d. The support arm 37a is formed by bending a support plate 37 fixed to the back surface of the front cover 13 of the camera, and the leaf spring 38 is fixed to the support plate 37.

The gear 35e is a zoom lens (23, 26).
Is formed in a range that is slightly wider than the rotation range of the gear interlocking ring 35 required to extend the gear from the storage position to the tele position.
This gear 35e is an interlocking gear 39 pivotally supported by the camera body.
And the rack and pinion 40 that rotates integrally with the interlocking gear 39 coaxially rotate.

The rack and pinion 40 moves the rack 41 in an interlocking manner to operate the electric signal generator 42. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, an electric contact piece 43 having sliding pieces 43a, 43b, 43c is provided at one end of the rack 41, and the electric contact piece 43 moves the electric power of the fixed substrate as the rack 41 moves. It slides on the terminals 44a, 44b, 44c. Note that FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of the lens drive ring 31 as viewed from the front direction of the camera.

The strip-shaped electric terminal 44a is formed by a sliding resistance, and this terminal 44a generates a zooming signal. Another strip-shaped electric terminal 44b is a ground terminal. Further, the comb-shaped electric terminal 44c generates a CPU activation signal, and the first terminal portion 44co thereof operates as a main switch (power switch means).

Next, the lens barrel 1 constructed as described above.
The drive and its operation by the manual operation 1 will be described.
2, 3 and 6 show the housed state of the lens barrel 11, in which both the front lens group 23 and the rear lens group 26 are in the retracted position.

In this housed state, the small ball 36 falls into the click recess 35d of the gear interlocking ring 35, and the lens drive ring 31 is held stationary by the click stop action. Further, in this stored state, as can be seen from FIG. 6, since the sliding piece 43c is located away from the first terminal 44co of the electric terminal 44c, the main switch is off.

When the zoom button 12 is manually operated in the direction of the arrow 46 in FIG. 1 in the above-mentioned stored state, the button drive ring 34 and the gear interlocking ring 35 are integrally rotated, and the cam follower 21 is moved by the forked interlocking arm 35b. It is driven to rotate in the same direction.

For this reason, the drive cylinder is attached to the helicoid screw (16
c, 17a) while moving forward while rotating, the moving cylinder 18 is interlocked with the rotation of the drive cylinder 17 and moves forward according to the helicoid screws (17b, 18a), so that the front lens group 23 is extended. Since the rotating barrel 29 rotates in association with the drive barrel 17, the rear lens group 26 is displaced by the cam hole 29a and the cam follower 28.

On the other hand, since the gear interlocking ring 35 is rotated by the manual operation of the zoom button 12, the small ball 36 escapes from the click concave portion 35d, and when the zoom button 12 is rotated for a predetermined time, as shown in FIG. It slides down from one end of the raised portion 35c to a part P of the outer peripheral surface of the gear interlocking ring 35.

At this time, the front lens group 23 is extended as shown in FIG. 7, and the rear lens group 26 is displaced according to the shape of the cam hole 29a as shown in FIG.
The zoom lens composed of 3, 26 is at the wide position. In addition, the movement of the small ball 36 that slides down from the raised portion 35c is delayed.
The wide position is transmitted to the fingers manually operating the mobile button 12, and the wide position is recognized with a sense of hand.

Further, the rotation of the gear interlocking ring 35 causes the interlocking gear 39 and the rack and pinion 40 to rotate rightward, the rack 41 moves to the right in FIG. 6, and the sliding piece 43c moves at the wide position of the zoom lens described above. It comes into contact with the first terminal 44co, and the main switch is turned on.

In this state, the zoom lens enters the photographing area to enter the photographing preparation state, and a wide zoom signal is output from the electric terminal 44a and a CPU start signal is output from the electric terminal 44c.

The zooming operation is performed by manually operating the zoom button 12 in the direction of the arrow 46. By this manual operation, the drive cylinder 17 advances while rotating, and the moving cylinder 18 further advances to move the front lens group 23 and the rear lens group 2 together.
6 is rolled out. In this case, the electric contact piece 43 moves further to the right in FIG. 6, and the electric signal generator 42 outputs the electric signal at the zoom position.

When the zoom button 12 is manually operated to the tele position, the front lens group 23 and the rear lens group 26 are extended as shown in FIG. In this case, the small ball 36 of the click stop mechanism continues to contact the outer peripheral surface of the gear interlocking ring 35, and contacts the outer peripheral surface of the ring 35 at the wide position. Further, the electric contact piece 43 of the electric signal generator 42 is further slid to move, and the electric terminals 44a, 44b, 44c are respectively moved.
To the rightmost position (Fig. 6), and a zoom signal at the tele position is output from the electric terminal 44a.

When the zoom button 12 manually operated to the zoom position as described above is returned, that is, when the zoom button 12 is manually operated in the direction opposite to the arrow 46, the gear interlocking ring 35 rotates in the direction opposite to the above, Part of the outer peripheral surface P at wide position
Comes into contact with the small ball 36, and the operating state shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 is obtained.

That is, since the small sphere 36 hits one end of the raised portion 35c, the fingers operating the zoom button 12 are given a moderation sensation, and the wide position is recognized. Further, at this time, the electrical contact piece 43 moves backward, and the sliding piece 4
3c contacts the first terminal 44co of the electric terminal 44c.

When the zoom lens is stored from the wide position, the zoom button 12 is manually operated so as to be returned further. As a result, the gear interlocking ring 35 rotates as if the raised portion 35c pushes up the small ball 36, and the small ball 36 falls into the click recessed portion 35d when it reaches the storage position.
The storage state shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is obtained.

When the zoom button 12 is manually operated from the wide position toward the storage position, the sliding piece 43c of the electric contact piece 43 is initially moved to the first terminal 44 of the electric terminal 44c.
After leaving co., the main switch is turned off, and the user exits the shooting area and enters the non-shooting state.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, it is preferable that a part P of the outer peripheral surface of the gear interlocking ring 35 is formed in a somewhat concave shape. Further, although the zoom button 12 is manually operated in the above-described embodiment, the same operation is performed even if the tip portion of the drive cylinder 17 is manually rotated.

[0046]

As described above, according to the driving device of the present invention, even if the zoom lens is zoomed by a manual operation, the zoom lens can be stored at a predetermined position.

When the zoom lens is moved out of the storage position and enters the photographing area, and when the zoom lens exits the photographing area, the moderating means operates, so that the manually operated fingers have the moderation feeling. , It is possible to recognize whether or not the camera is in a photographing enabled state.

Since the zoom lens is equipped with power switch means which is turned on when it enters the photographing area and is turned off when it is leaving the photographing area, the zoom lens can be driven reliably for zooming operation. It becomes a device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a camera including a lens barrel having a zoom lens embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional side view showing a housed state of a lens barrel of the camera.

3 is a sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged partial perspective view showing a bifurcated interlocking arm of a gear interlocking ring provided in the above lens barrel.

FIG. 5 is a partial configuration diagram showing a connection configuration of a zoom drive ring and a gear interlocking ring which constitute a lens drive ring provided in the lens barrel.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a lens drive ring when viewed from the front of the camera.

FIG. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional side view similar to FIG. 2, showing wide operation.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 3, showing a wide operation.

FIG. 9 is a vertical cross-sectional side view similar to FIG. 2, showing a telescopic operation.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 3, showing a telescopic operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Lens barrel 12 Zoom button 16 Fixed barrel 16b Cam hole 17 Drive barrel 18c Straight advance hole 21 Cam follower 23 Front group lens 26 Rear group lens 28 Cam follower 29 Rotating barrel 29a Cam hole 31 Lens drive ring 34 Button drive ring 35 Gear interlocking Ring 35b Bifurcated interlocking arm 35c Raised portion 35d Ring recess 35e Gear 36 Small ball 39 Interlocking gear 40 Rack and pinion 41 Rack 42 Electric signal generator

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A zoom lens driving device provided in a photographing device for zooming by manual operation, comprising lens moving means for interlocking with the manual operation and moving the zoom lens to a storage position in addition to moving the photographing area. , A mechanical moderation means for manually operating the fingers when the zoom lens advances from the storage position and enters the shooting area, and when the zoom lens moves toward the storage position and exits the shooting area, A driving device for a zoom lens, comprising a power switch means of a photographing device circuit which is turned on when the zoom lens enters the photographing region and turned off when the zoom lens exits the photographing region.