JPH11169347A - Eyegrounds camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a malfunction and an unfavorable contact from occurring by a method wherein a detecting means which detects the start of a fitting motion of a photographing device onto a mount is provided, and a time counting means is operated based on the detecting signal, and a power application to the imaging device is controlled based on the counted time. SOLUTION: When a 35 mm camera is fitted to eyegrounds camera main body 11, an operation handle 26 of a mount 20 is operated, and a clamping ring 23 is rotated until a rotation-restricting pin 35 hits the upper end of a slit 21f. By this motion, a state wherein a camera can be fitted on the eyegrounds camera main body 11 is presented, and under this state, the camera is pressed to the mount 20, and a lock-releasing button 101 is press-contacted. Then, by turning the clamping ring 23 which becomes rotatable, a flange-like fitting 27 which is integrally provided on the camera side is clamped, and the fitting of the camera is completed. The passing time after the completion of the fitting is counted by a timer, and after a specified period of time has passed, a power application to the camera is started, and a photographing possible state is presented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fundus camera for photographing a fundus of a subject's eye, and more particularly, to a mount formed on a fundus camera body, a plurality of photographing devices such as a 35 mm camera and a TV camera. The present invention relates to an improvement in a selectively mountable fundus camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a plurality of types of photographing devices (for example, 35 m
2. Description of the Related Art A fundus camera capable of selectively mounting an m camera, an instant camera, and a TV camera on a mount is known.

In such a fundus camera, these photographing apparatuses do not have an independent power supply, but are driven by receiving power supply from the fundus camera body. Then, the supply of the electric power is performed via an electric contact provided near a mount provided on the retinal camera body side and an electric contact provided on the photographing apparatus side. In addition, the electrical contact on the main body side and the electrical contact on the imaging device side come into contact with each other by pressing the imaging device against the mount, and the fastening ring is further rotated to fix the imaging device to the mount. This ensures contact.

[0004]

However, in the conventional fundus camera, when the photographing device is pressed against the mount and the electric contacts contact each other, the photographing device is still in an unstable state in which the photographing device is not fixed to the mount. Also, the power supply to the photographing apparatus is started. Therefore, during the tightening operation of the tightening mechanism for tightening and fixing the photographing device to the mount, the photographing device is shifted during the tightening operation, the electrical contact once contacted is separated, and the energization may be stopped again. There was an inconvenience. In addition, if energization is started just by pressing the photographing device against the mount, the operator will be relieved by himself and tend to stop the tightening work when the tightening by the tightening mechanism is not enough. There is. In this case, there is a disadvantage that the electric contact may be separated again due to the weight of the photographing device and the supply of power may be stopped, and that there is a disadvantage that the quality of the fundus photograph is deteriorated due to rattling of the photographing device. .

[0005] In order to solve these inconveniences, there is also known an image capturing apparatus in which an ON / OFF switch is separately provided. However, it is ON / OF
In some cases, the operator forgets to turn on the F switch, which increases the burden on the operator. In addition, the fastening work is often started while the switch is turned on, and the above-mentioned inconvenience has not been sufficiently solved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a fundus camera capable of supplying power to a photographing apparatus while the mounting of the photographing apparatus on a mount is stable.

[0007]

To achieve the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, in a fundus camera having a mount for mounting a photographing device, an operation of mounting the photographing device on the mount is started. That the fundus camera includes: a detecting unit that detects that the power is turned on, a time measuring unit that operates based on an output of the detecting unit, and an energizing start unit that energizes the imaging device based on an output of the time measuring unit. Features.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tightening ring for tightening and fixing the photographing device to the mount, and the detecting means detects that rotation of the tightening ring has started. Characterized by having a sensor for

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As a photographing device, for example, a TV camera, a still video camera or the like can be mounted in addition to the 35 mm camera 12, but for simplification of description, only the case where the 35 mm camera is mounted will be described.

The mounting mechanism (mount) 2 shown in FIGS.
0 is a tightening ring 23 as shown in FIG. 1 and FIGS.
It has. FIG. 1 is a front view of the fastening ring 23, and FIGS. 4 to 6 are sectional views of the fastening ring 23. The tightening ring 23 includes a ring portion 23a and a flange portion 23b perpendicular to the ring portion 23a, as is apparent from FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, a female screw portion 23c is formed on the back surface of the flange portion 23b, and the male screw portion 21c formed on the outer peripheral surface of the screw alloy tool 21 protruding from the fundus camera body 11 side. It can be screwed and rotated with the screw portion 21c. The rotation is performed by an operation lever 26 attached to the ring 23a.

A rotation regulating pin 35 is provided upright on the back surface of the ring portion 23a, that is, on the surface facing the screw alloy tool 21. On the other hand, as shown by a dotted line in FIG. 1, the screw alloy tool 21 is formed with an arc-shaped slit 21f,
One end of the rotation regulating pin 35 is inserted into the slit f. The shape of the circular arc of the slit f is formed so that the rotation regulating pin 35 matches the circular locus drawn by the rotation of the tightening ring 23, and the central angle of the circular arc is about 6
0 degrees. Thereby, the rotatable range of the tightening ring 23 is limited to about 60 degrees. In this embodiment, when the rotation restricting pin 35 is at the upper end of the slit 21f, 3
The 5 mm camera 12 is configured to be attachable. Further, when the rotation regulating pin 35 is at the upper end of the slit 21f, the tightening ring 23 is locked by a lock mechanism (not shown). When the 35mm camera 12 is attached,
When the lock release button 101 (see FIGS. 1 and 4 to 6) attached to the fundus camera body 11 is pressed by the body of the camera 12, the lock mechanism is locked, and the rotation of the fastening ring 23 is performed. It becomes possible.

As shown in FIG. 1, the tightening ring 23 has notches 23c, 23c, 23c formed at intervals of 120 degrees on the inner peripheral surface of the ring portion 23a, and a gap between the notches 23c. Flange portions 23d, 23d, 23
d. Then, as shown in FIG.
The notch 23c,
Flanges 27c, 27c, 27c formed at intervals of 120 degrees are provided corresponding to 23c. In addition, a positioning pin 25 (FIG. 1) is provided upright on the screw alloy tool 21 on the side of the retinal camera body 11, while the positioning pin 25 is 35 mm.
A groove 28 (FIG. 7) provided corresponding to the metal fitting 27 on the camera 12 side is formed. These flange portion 27c, notch portion 23c, positioning pin 25, groove 28
Is for fixing the 35 mm camera 12 at an appropriate position.

A micro switch 34 for detecting the passage of the rotation restricting pin 35 is provided as a detecting means (sensor) near the upper end of the slit 21f. It is configured to detect that the rotation of the tightening ring 23 has started in the tightening direction. That is, the microswitch 34 functions as a detection unit that detects that the mounting operation of the imaging device on the mount has started.

Further, electrical contacts a1,... An are provided near the mounting mechanism 20 of the retinal camera body 11. The electric contact a is for supplying electric power to the 35 mm camera 12 from the power source E (see FIG. 9) disposed in the fixed base 1 described above. On the 35 mm camera 12 side, electrical contacts b1, b2,... For contacting the electrical contact a and supplying power to the 35mm camera 12 are provided.
bn is formed. (FIG. 7). This electrical contact b
In order to absorb the tightening force of the tightening ring 23, it is configured to be expandable and contractable by a spring mechanism (not shown). Electrical contacts a,
b contact each other by the pressing operation of the 35 mm camera 12 against the mounting mechanism 20, and the tightening ring 2
The complete tightening operation of 3 completes a secure electrical connection. As a result, a state where stable power supply to the 35 mm camera 12 can be started is established.

The ON / OFF signal from the micro switch 34 is input to a timer 38 as time measuring means as shown in FIG. Timer 38
It is configured to measure the time from receiving the ON / OFF signal. Further, the output from the timer 38 is configured to be input to the arithmetic control circuit 36 as the power supply start means. The arithmetic control circuit 36 has a function of determining whether or not the time measured by the timer 38 has reached a predetermined time, and turns on / off the supply of power to the 35 mm camera 12 when the time has reached the predetermined time.
Has a function as an energization start means for outputting a signal (switching signal) for switching the switch S (FIG. 9) for performing the operation. Here, the predetermined time is a time sufficiently longer than an average time from when the operator starts rotating the operation lever 26 to when the tightening is completed. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the time is set to 10 seconds. However, it is possible to set a longer time or a shorter time as needed.

The operation of the above embodiment will be described below.

First, the operator operates the operation handle 26 to rotate the tightening ring 23 until the rotation restricting pin 35 hits the upper end of the slit 21, so that the 35 mm camera 12 can be mounted on the fundus camera body 11. That is, the groove 27, the positioning pin 25, and the notch 23C
And a state in which the flange portion 27C can be matched. In this state, the fastening ring 23 cannot be rotated by the lock mechanism (not shown).

Next, the operator operates the mount mechanism 20 for 3
Press the 5 mm camera 12. At this time, tightening ring 2
The notch 23C on the third side is aligned with the flange 27C on the 35 mm camera side, and the positioning pin 25 is inserted into the groove 28. In this case, the flange portion 27C of the metal fitting 27 of the camera 12
The metal fitting 27 presses the lock release button 101 while entering behind the notch 23C of the fastening ring 23 (FIG. 5). Thereby, rotation of the fastening ring 23 becomes possible.

On the other hand, when the tightening ring 23 becomes rotatable, the electrical contacts a and b come into contact with each other. However, unlike the conventional device, at this time, 35 mm
The energization of the camera is not started, and the energization is started only after a predetermined time has elapsed after the rotation of the tightening ring 23 has started.
This will be described later.

Subsequently, the operator rotates the tightening ring 23 unlocked by the lock mechanism by operating the operation lever 26. Then, due to this rotation, the flange portion 23d of the tightening ring 23 covers the flange portion 27C of the bracket 27 on the 35 mm camera side. At the same time, the rotation of the screw of the tightening ring 23 causes the flange portion 23d to press the flange portion 27C against the screw alloy tool 21 side. Thus, the tightening ring 23 is sufficiently rotated until the 35 mm camera 12 is no longer rattled.

On the other hand, when the rotation of the tightening ring 23 is started, the rotation restricting pin 35 is separated from the upper end of the slit 21f, so that the micro switch 34 is turned on. The micro switch 34 outputs the ON signal to the timer 38. The timer 38 measures the time after receiving the ON signal. The arithmetic control circuit 36 determines whether or not the time measured by the timer 38 has reached a predetermined time (here, 10 seconds), and when the time has reached 10 seconds, turns on the switch S. Outputs a switching signal. Thus, power supply to the 35 mm camera is started.

As described above, in the present invention, the power supply to the 35 mm camera 12 is not started immediately after the contact of the electric contact, but the power supply is performed after a sufficient time has elapsed since the tightening by the tightening ring 23 has started. To start. Most of the operators have some individual differences, but since the tightening operation of the tightening ring 23 is completed in about 10 seconds, the power supply to the 35 mm camera 12 is started during the tightening operation of the tightening ring 23. It can be said that there is practically no such thing.

In the above embodiment, the micro switch 34 is configured to detect that the rotation restricting pin 35 has moved away from the initial position. However, the present invention is not limited to this. May be detected as having passed through the middle point.

[0025]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the power supply to the photographing device is performed after a predetermined time has elapsed since the mounting operation of the photographing device to the mount is started.
Setting the “predetermined time” to an appropriate value has an effect that it can be expected that the mounting of the image capturing apparatus to the mount can be reliably performed. That is, it is possible to prevent the mounting operation from being stopped when the mounting of the photographing apparatus on the mount is not sufficient, thereby reducing the possibility of malfunction or poor contact.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tightening ring for tightening and fixing the photographing device to the mount, and the detecting means detects that rotation of the tightening ring has started. Therefore, when the "predetermined time" is set to an appropriate value, it is possible to expect that the fastening by the fastening ring can be reliably performed. That is, the tightening operation is not stopped in a state where the tightening force of the tightening ring is not sufficient, so that there is an effect that the possibility of malfunction or poor contact can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a body-side mount provided on a fundus camera body according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a fundus camera having the body-side mount of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of the camera mounting portion of FIG. 2 as viewed from another angle.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are explanatory views of the mounting operation of the photographing device to the mount of the fundus camera.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are explanatory views of the mounting operation of the photographing device to the mount of the fundus camera.

FIGS. 6 and 3 are explanatory views of the mounting operation of the photographing device to the mount of the fundus camera.

FIG. 7 is a front view of a recording means side mount of the 35 mm camera shown in FIGS. 2 and 3;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a contact point between the fundus camera body and the 35 mm camera in FIGS. 2 and 3;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between the contact point in FIGS. 1 and 7 and a 35 mm camera.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 12 35 mm camera (photographing device) 20 Mount mechanism (mount) 23 Tightening ring 34 Microswitch (detection means, sensor) 36 Operation control circuit (power supply start means) 38 Timer (power supply start means)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A fundus camera having a mount for mounting a photographing device, wherein the detecting device detects that the mounting operation of the photographing device on the mount has started, and operates based on an output of the detecting device. A fundus camera comprising: a time measuring unit; and an energization starting unit that energizes the imaging device based on an output of the time measuring unit. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a tightening ring for tightening and fixing the photographing device to the mount, and the detecting means including a sensor for detecting that rotation of the tightening ring has started. The fundus camera according to claim 1, wherein: