JPS62245232A - Camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect the unused state in accordance with the attitude of a camera to automatically turn off a power source by providing a timer which is connected to a means, which detects the attitude of the camera body, and operates a switching circuit to turn off a power line when the attitude in the unused state of the camera body is kept for a prescribed time. CONSTITUTION:A pair of carrying detection contacts are connected to an oscillator 25; and when the camera is carried, the oscillator 25 is operated because this pair of contacts Z are turned on. The oscillator 25 generates a pulse periodically, and this pulse is inputted to a clock terminal C of a counter 27 through an AND circuit 26. The oscillator 25 and the counter 27 constitute a timer circuit, and an output terminal D of the counter 27 goes to the high level when the counter 27 counts a prescribed number of pulses. The output signal is sent to a delay circuit 16 and turns off a switching circuit 15 after a prescribed time to stop the power supplying to a power line L.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a camera that automatically turns off the power by detecting a state of non-use from the camera posture.

[Conventional technology]

Modern cameras have automatic winding mechanisms, automatic focus adjustment mechanisms,
Equipped with an automatic exposure control mechanism, low-brightness automatic flash flash, etc., the automation of camera operation has progressed considerably.

For this reason, batteries are indispensable in cameras, and when the main switch is turned on, power is supplied to each of the above-mentioned mechanisms.

This main switch must be turned off when shooting is complete, but many people forget to do this. In this case, each mechanism remains powered, so
The battery will be wasted. In particular, in low-brightness automatic strobes, the capacitor is always recharged to keep it at a constant voltage, so if the main switch is left ON, the battery will consume a lot of power.

To prevent forgetting to turn off the main switch mentioned above,
The main switch is linked to the lens barrier, and the main switch is turned off when the lens barrier is closed after shooting.
There are cameras known for this purpose.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] Even if the main switch mentioned above is linked to the lens barrier, if you forget to close the lens barrier after taking a picture, the main switch will remain on, and the battery will be wasted. Put it away.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a camera that automatically turns off the power by detecting the state of non-use from the camera posture.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a switching circuit for turning ON/OFF the power supply line that supplies power to each part of the camera, a gear stage for detecting the attitude of the camera body, and a gear stage connected to this attitude detection means. The camera is equipped with a timer that operates a switching circuit to turn off the power line when the camera body is in an unused position for a predetermined period of time.

When the camera is not in use, the camera body is hung in an inclined state by a hand strap or the like, or is placed on a table or the like with the lens facing upward. This posture when not in use is detected by the posture detection means, and a timer is activated accordingly. This timer starts timing operation from the time when the camera assumes a posture when not in use, and when this state continues for a certain period of time, activates a switching circuit to turn off the power line.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

〔Example〕

The main switch 10 includes an ON contact 10a, an OFF contact fob, and a movable contact piece 10c, and is attached to the camera body so as to be operable from the outside. This movable contact piece 1
A timer circuit composed of a resistor 1) and a capacitor 12 is connected to 0c, and when the main switch 10 is turned OFF,
Even when the F contact 10b is switched to the OFF state, the transistor 13 is kept in the ON state for a predetermined period of time. When the main switch 10 is set to the OFF state, the strobe 39 is lowered to the retracted position and the lens barrier 48 is lowered, as shown in FIGS.
．． This is to keep the power on for a sufficient period of time to close the lens barrel 49 and store the lens barrel 50 inside the camera body 21.

When the capacitor 12 is charged to a predetermined potential, the transistor 13 connected in series with the battery 14 is turned on, so that the switching circuit 15 is supplied with power. This switching circuit 15 is composed of a transistor, etc., and is normally in an ON state and supplies electricity from the battery 14 to the power supply line L, but is OFF while a non-use signal is input from the delay circuit 16. state, and no electricity is supplied to the power line L.

An attitude detection switch 18 is provided to determine whether the camera is in use or not in use based on the camera attitude. This attitude detection switch 18 has a sealed container 19 made of an insulating material such as a glass pipe processed into a V-shape, and a small amount of conductive liquid such as mercury 20 is placed in the container 19 . A contact pair X, Y, and Z consisting of two contacts arranged close to each other is provided at the center and both ends of the sealed container 19.

As shown in FIG. 2(A), the posture detection switch 18 is
It is provided on the camera body 21 or the back cover 22. The contact pair X provided in the center is for detecting horizontal position photography, and when this horizontal position photography is performed, the mercury 20 comes into contact with the horizontal position detection contact pair X, as shown in (B). The two contacts electrically contact each other via the mercury 20 and are turned on.

As shown in FIG. 3(A), when photographing in a vertical position, the camera is held with the right hand facing down, so the vertical position detection contact pair Y is turned on by the mercury 20.

When the camera is not in use, it is often carried by hanging it via the hand strap 23.

Since this hand strap 23 is attached to the upper right side of the camera body 21, when the camera body 21 is carried, the camera body 21 is tilted, and the carrying detection contact pair Z is turned on.

In FIG. 1, a pair of cell phone detection contacts Z is connected to an oscillator 25, and since the cell phone detection contact pair Z is turned on when the camera is carried, the oscillator 25 is activated. This oscillator 25
generates a pulse with a constant period and ANDs this pulse
The signal is inputted to the clock terminal C of the counter 27 via the circuit 26. This oscillator 25 and counter 27 constitute a timer circuit, and when a certain number of pulses are counted,
That is, when a certain period of time has passed since the last reset, it is determined that the main switch 10 remains in the ON position and is not in use. This time is determined statistically and is usually about 5 seconds.

When the counter 27 counts a predetermined number of pulses, its output terminal becomes rHJ.

This output signal is sent to the delay circuit 16, and after a predetermined time, the switching circuit 15 is turned off, and the power supply line L
Stops power supply. Further, an inverter 28 is provided to close the AND circuit 26 and stop the counting operation of the counter 27.

When photographing, the camera is held horizontally or vertically.

In this state, the contact pair x, y of the attitude detection switch 18
is turned on, the voltage generated at the connection point P of the resistors 29 and 30 is input to the reset terminal R of the counter 27. Therefore, while the camera is photographing, the counter 26 is reset, so the power line L is never turned off.

When the switching circuit 15 is in the ON state, electricity from the battery 14 is sent to the control circuit 35 and the like via the power line L. This control circuit 35 is composed of, for example, a microcomputer, and sequentially controls each section according to a predetermined program.

The control circuit 35 also includes a shutter 36. Motor 37.
3B, strobe 39 is connected. The motor 37 is
For example, it is housed in a winding Lisbourg, and drives the film feeding mechanism 40 to wind and rewind the film. As is well known, this film feeding mechanism 40 charges the shutter 36 when winding the film. The motor 38 is connected to a strobe pop-amp mechanism 41. Collapsing mechanism 42
゜The lens barrier opening/closing mechanism 43 is driven respectively.

The strobe pop-up mechanism 41 moves the strobe 39 between a pop-up position where it protrudes from the camera body 21 and a storage position where it is stored in the camera body 21.

The collapsing mechanism 42 displaces the lens barrel between a position where the lens barrel protrudes from the camera body 21 and a position where the lens barrel is housed within the camera body 21. The lens barrier opening/closing mechanism 43 is provided within the lens barrel and controls opening/closing of a lens barrier disposed in front of the lens. The strobe 39 is of a low-intensity automatic flash type and automatically fires when the subject is dark. It also detects the capacitor voltage and automatically recharges the capacitor if it drops to a predetermined voltage.

When the main switch IO is set to the ON position,
That is, when the movable contact piece 10c is connected to the ON contact lOa side, a pulse is output from the one-shot multivibrator 44. When this pulse is input to the control circuit 35, the motor 38
is rotated to displace the strobe 39 to the pop-up position, project the lens barrel from the camera body 21, displace the lens barrier to the open position, and automatically set the camera to a ready-to-photograph state. In addition, when the power is turned off by the main switch 10 or when the power is turned off automatically, the OR circuit 4
A signal is input to the control circuit 35 via Z so that the motor 38 automatically reverses, retracting the lens barrel, returning the strobe 39 to the retracted position, and returning the lens barrier to the closed position. Note that the strobe pop-up mechanism 41 and the lens barrier opening/closing mechanism 43 are manually set to the operating state and locked in this state.
When the power is turned off, the electromagnet may be temporarily energized to release the lock, and the strobe 39, lens barrel, and lens barrier may be returned to non-use positions using the stored force of the spring. Furthermore, a strobe pop amplifier mechanism 41. Collapsing mechanism 42. The lens barrier opening/closing mechanism 43 may be driven by a dedicated motor. When the release button 46 is operated, the shutter 36
is activated to take a picture, and then the motor 37 is rotated to wind the film and charge the shutter.

FIG. 5 shows a lens barrier opening/closing mechanism and a strobe pop-up mechanism. The lens barrier opening/closing mechanism 43 is
Two lens barriers 48, 4 that move in opposite directions
9 is provided within the lens barrel 50. Racks 48a and 49a are formed on the lens barriers 48 and 49, respectively, and these racks 48a and 49a mesh with both sides of the pinion 51. Lens barriers 48 and 49 have elongated holes 48b and 49b provided above and below, respectively, which are loosely fitted into fixed pins 52 and 53, so when pinion 51 is rotated by motor 38, the lens barriers 48 and 49 move linearly and lock lens 54. Open and close.

The apron 55 of the strobe 39 is provided with a pair of elongated holes 55a and a rack 55b, and when the pinion 56 is rotated by the motor 38, it is guided by the fixing pin 57 that loosely fits into the pair of elongated holes 55a. Move up and down. In the photographing preparation state, the strobe 39 protrudes from the camera body 21, and is stored within the camera body 21 when the camera is not in use.

The camera body 21 has a built-in attitude detection switch 1 described above, and depending on the attitude of the camera body 21, one of the contact pairs x, y, and z is turned on. A release button 467 is provided on the top surface of the camera body 21. Note that the reference numeral 58 is a finder.

FIG. 6 shows the collapsing mechanism. A pair of pins 60 are implanted in the lens barrel 50, and these pins 6
0 are loosely fitted into the straight grooves 61, respectively. Further, a rank plate 62 is fixed to the lens barrel 50, and a pinion 63 meshes with a rack 62a formed on the rack plate 62. When the motor 38 rotates, the lens barrel 50 is guided by the linear groove 61 and moves between the retracted position shown by the solid line and the protruded position shown by the dotted line.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. When using the camera, first switch the main switch IO
Set to ON position. When the movable contact piece 10c of the main switch 10 is connected to the ON contact 10a, charging of the capacitor 12 is started. Then, when the time Tl elapses, the capacitor 12 reaches a predetermined voltage, so
Transistor 13 is turned on. When this transistor 13 is turned on, the switching circuit 15 is turned on,
A control circuit 35, a shutter 36 . Motor 37.38. Power is supplied to the strobe 39.

Furthermore, when the main switch 10 is set to the ON position, the one-shot multi-bye break 44 is activated and outputs a pulse with a width longer than a sufficient time for the power supply voltage of the control circuit 35 to stabilize. When this pulse is input to the control circuit 35 as a start-of-use signal, the control circuit 35 drives the motor 38. When the motor 38 is driven, the pinion 56 rotates counterclockwise, so the strobe 39
It pops up from the camera body 21 as shown by the solid line in the figure. Further, since the pinion 63 is rotated clockwise by the motor 38, the lens barrel 50 is
6, and is set in the position shown by the dotted line in FIG.

Furthermore, since the motor 38 rotates the pinion 51 counterclockwise, the pair of lens barriers 48 and 49 move linearly in a direction away from each other, and the lens 51 is exposed. Further, charging of the strobo 39 is automatically started.

When photographing, the camera body 21 is held in a horizontal position as shown in FIG. 2, or in a vertical position as shown in FIG. During this shooting, the mercury 20 comes into contact with the horizontal position detection contact pair X or the vertical position detection contact pair Y, so these are turned ON.
state. In this case, since current flows through the resistors 29 and 30, the counter 27 is reset by the voltage generated at the connection point P.

While holding the camera body 21 in the horizontal or vertical position,
When the release button 46 is pressed, the control circuit 35 operates the shutter 36. When the shutter 36 is activated and the photographing of one frame is completed, the control circuit 35 rotates the motor 37 and operates the film feeding mechanism 40. This film feeding mechanism 40 winds the film by one frame and charges the shutter 36. Note that when the subject has low brightness, the strobe 39 automatically emits light as is well known.

When the camera is not in use, it is carried with the camera body 21 suspended from the hand strap 23, as shown in FIG. In this case, since the mobile detection contact pair Z is conductive, the oscillator 25 is energized. When this oscillator 25 operates, the pulses outputted from it are sent to the AND circuit 26.
It is sent to the counter 27 via the counter 27, where it is counted. When the counter 27 starts counting and counts a predetermined number of pulses, its output terminal becomes rH.
It becomes J. In other words, after the camera becomes portable,
When time T2 has elapsed, a signal indicating that the camera is not in use is sent to delay circuit 16.

At the same time, since the AND circuit 26 is closed, the counting operation of the counter 27 is stopped.

When the unused signal is output from the counter 27, the OR
The signal is input to the control circuit 35 via the circuit 45. This control circuit 35 reverses the motor 38 and causes the strobe 39 .
The lens barrel 50 is returned to the storage position, and the lens barrier 4 is
8.49 is returned to shield the lens 54. This results in
Each mechanism of the camera is set to an unused state.

The delay circuit 16 delays the non-use signal by the time T3 required to set the camera in the non-use state, and sends this to the switching circuit 15. This switching circuit 15
The signal from the delay circuit 16 turns off, for example, a transistor (not shown) connected to the power supply line L.

As a result, each electric circuit connected to the power line L is
Becomes FF.

After using the camera, when the main switch 10 is returned to the OFF position, the movable contact piece 10c comes into contact with the OFF contact 10b. As a result, the OR circuit 45 outputs a non-use signal, so that the motor 38 rotates as described above, returning each mechanism to the non-use state.

Furthermore, when the main switch 10 is turned off, the capacitor 12 starts discharging, and after each mechanism is set to a non-use state, the transistor 13 is turned off. When this transistor 13 is turned off, power supply to all circuits is stopped.

If you want to use the camera again with the power turned off automatically, return the main switch 10 to the OFF position. When the main switch 10 is returned to the OFF position, the counter 27. Since the delay circuit 16 etc. are reset, the output terminal of the counter 27 becomes "L", and
When the main switch IO is returned to the ON position, each circuit is energized and each mechanism is put into use as described above.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show another embodiment of the posture detection switch. The attitude detection switch 65 is composed of a linear sealed container 66, a pair of contacts M and N, and mercury 67, and is arranged at an angle so that the pair of contacts N is at the bottom of the camera body 21. There is. When the attitude detection switch 65 is used, the non-use detection contact pair M is connected to the resistor 29 and used for resetting the counter 27. The usage detection contact pair N is connected in series with the oscillator 25 and is used as a power switch for the oscillator 25.

When shooting from a horizontal position, the contact pair N for use detection is not conductive, so
Counter 27 is reset. In addition, the lens barrel 50
Place the camera on the table so that S! If the counter 27 is placed, the non-use detection contact pair M becomes conductive, and the counter 27 is reset. In addition, when shooting in a vertical position, the contact pair M and N are turned on and off due to slight shaking of the camera, so that the counter 27 is reset as appropriate.

Note that the posture detection switch 65 can be used together with the posture detection switch 18 shown in FIG. 1, and in this case, the usage detection contact pair N is replaced with the lateral position detection contact pair X.
, are connected in parallel with the vertical position detection contact pair Y, and the non-use detection contact pair M is connected in parallel with the portable detection contact pair Z.

In the above embodiment, a sealed container containing mercury is used as the attitude detection switch, but instead, a lever with a weight fixed to the bottom is used, and when the lever swings according to the tilt of the camera, the lever It is also possible to use a structure in which switches placed on the left, right, and bottom sides of the switch are turned on and off.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the posture detecting means for detecting the posture of the camera when not in use, and the timer for measuring the m duration of the posture when not in use are provided, so that the camera can be kept at a constant level. When the device is placed in a position where it is not in use for a period of time, it determines that the device has forgotten to turn off the power and automatically turns off the power, thereby reliably preventing forgetting to turn off the power and thereby eliminating wasteful battery consumption. I can do it.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2(A) is a rear view of the camera showing horizontal position photography, and FIG. 2(B) is an explanatory diagram showing the state of the posture detection switch. FIG. 3(A) is a rear view of the camera showing vertical position photography, and FIG. 3(B) is an explanatory diagram showing the state of the posture detection switch. Figure 4 (A) is a rear view of the camera when it is carried;
B) is an explanatory diagram showing the state of the posture detection switch. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a lens barrier mechanism and a strobe pop-up mechanism. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the collapsing mechanism. FIG. 7 is a timing chart of the circuit shown in itb, and shows a state in which the power is automatically turned off. FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the attitude detection switch, and is an explanatory diagram showing how the camera is used. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the camera is not in use, placed on a table or the like. 10 Main switch 14 Battery 18 Posture detection switch 19 Sealed container 20 Mercury X Horizontal position detection contact pair Y Vertical position detection contact Pair Z...Mobile detection contact pair 37.38...Motor 39...Strobe 48.49...Lens barrier 50...Lens barrel 54...Lens 65...Attitude detection switch 67・ ・ Water i 艮 M...Contact pair for non-use detection N...Contact pair for use detection...Power line. ■ 滌

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) Turn on and off the power lines that supply power to each part of the camera
A switching circuit for detecting the position of the camera body, a means for detecting the posture of the camera body, and a means for detecting the posture are connected to the posture detecting means. A camera characterized by being equipped with a timer to turn it off. (2) The attitude detection means includes an insulating V-shaped sealed container and a conductive liquid sealed therein.
Consists of three pairs of contacts placed at both ends and the center of the sealed container, and resets the timer when the pair of contacts placed at the ends near the strap and the pair of contacts placed in the center are turned on. 2. The camera according to claim 1, wherein the timer is activated when the remaining contact pairs are turned on. (3) The attitude detection means includes an insulating sealed container, a conductive liquid sealed therein, and two contact pairs arranged at both ends of the sealed container, and includes a lens optical axis. The attitude detection means is arranged diagonally on the camera body so that one pair of contacts is in the ON state when the lens is approximately horizontal, and the other pair of contacts is in the ON state when the lens optical axis is approximately vertical. A camera according to claim 1. (4) The camera according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the timer comprises an oscillator that generates pulses with a constant period and a counter that counts the pulses.