Camera

Details Camera Camera

1998-05-14

2001-11-27

Mahoney, Christopher (Department: 2851)

Photography

Camera detail

Body structure or housing

C396S541000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06324348

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a camera, and in particular to a body structure of a camera.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, cameras which have relatively large zoom ratios have been produced. Because the weight and volume of the lens barrel tends to increase as a function of zoom ratio, the problem arises of providing the body units of such cameras with sufficient internal stiffness. An example of a known approach to this problem is shown in
FIG. 11
, which shows a conventional type single lens reflex camera with a 5× zoom lens and a camera body structure comprising a stiff front board unit
103
and a lens unit
104
for holding a taking lens. In order to enhance total stiffness of the camera body, the front board unit
103
and the lens unit
104
are attached to a stiff main body unit
101
. The front board unit
103
is attached, via a focal plane shutter unit
102
, to the main body unit
101
which has a film cartridge chamber
101
a.
A rear cover unit
105
as an exterior unit is attached to the main body unit from the rear side of the main body unit.
FIG. 12
shows the coupling state of the camera body of FIG.
11
. The front board unit
103
and the lens unit
104
are attached to each other with screws at coupling points C
31
. The main body
101
and the front board unit
103
are attached to each other via the shutter unit
102
with screws at coupling points C
32
.
FIG. 13
is a perspective view showing the attachment of an exterior unit to the camera body of
FIG. 11
, which is assembled from the front board unit
103
, main body unit
101
, etc. A pentagonal prism
110
and an upper cover unit
107
are attached to the front board unit
103
with screws. A cover unit
106
, a grip unit
108
, and a back cover unit
105
are also attached to the main body unit
101
with screws. Thus, the conventional type camera body shown has a united structure with the front board unit
103
, the main body unit
101
, and the lens unit
104
, thus allowing the attachment of the above-mentioned various exterior units with no reinforcement. A main capacitor
109
for a flash light is held within a grip unit
108
.
On the other hand, in the case of a conventional lens shutter type camera with a 3× zoom lens, as shown in
FIG. 14
, a typical camera body structure includes a main body unit
111
attached to a lens unit
112
.
FIG. 15
shows the coupling state of the structure of the camera body of
FIG. 14
, to which a main body unit
111
and a flange portion of a lens unit
112
are attached to each other with screws at coupling points C
41
. In this lens shutter type camera, only lens unit
112
consists of a stiff member in order to decrease body weight. In attaching exterior units to the camera body, as shown in
FIG. 16
, such as a front cover
114
and a rear cover
113
, in order to prevent torsionally deforming an exterior unit by screwed engagement, the front cover unit
114
is positionally regulated to the lens unit
112
by fitting the end portion of the lens unit
112
to the opening of the front cover
114
. The rear cover
113
, as a rear exterior unit, is attached to the main body unit
111
at a thrust portion C
42
, then the rear cover
113
and the front exterior unit
114
are tightened together with screws at coupling points C
43
. Thus, the exterior units
113
and
114
are held together with screws which are not directly tightened to the camera body.
In the body structure of the single lens reflex camera, however, both the front board unit
103
and the lens unit
104
are required to have high stiffness, so that the cost of the camera body tends to be high. Furthermore, the volume of the camera becomes greater because the stiff front board unit needs a large setting space. Also, in the body structure of the lens shutter type camera, the lens unit
112
is required to have high stiffness and in order to avoid deformation of the exterior unit by engagement of the screws, the exterior unit cannot be directly tightened with screws to the main body unit
111
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks with known cameras.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a camera which can be made small in size, allows for easy assembly of the exterior unit to the camera body, and can be made at a reasonable cost.
The third object of the present invention is to provide a camera which has sufficient strength while small in size and light-weight.
The camera according to the present invention comprises a rigid board provided on a plane substantially perpendicular to an optical axis, a main body unit attached to the board from one face side, and a lens unit attached to the board from another face side.
As mentioned above, the camera according to the present invention is constructed with the main body unit and the lens unit being attached to the rigid board which is substantially perpendicular to the optical axis, so that the main body unit and the lens unit are not required to have particularly high stiffness. As a result, it is possible to make the camera compact, reasonable in cost, and well-suited for assembly of exterior units to the camera body.
These and other advantages and features of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following detailed description of the invention and studying the accompanying drawings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5630176 (1997-05-01), Yamashina et al.
patent: 2249188 (1992-04-01), None

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