Photography – Camera detail – Body structure or housing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-23
2003-04-01
Gray, David M. (Department: 2851)
Photography
Camera detail
Body structure or housing
C396S538000, C396S539000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06542701
ABSTRACT:
This application claims benefit of Japanese Application No. 2000-124584 filed on Apr. 25, 2000, and No. 2001-070852 filed on Mar. 13, 2001, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera, and more particularly to a camera comprising means for covering an aperture portion and convex/concave portion formed at visible positions.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional camera for photography has various compartments to set and store various members at predetermined locations in a camera main body. The compartments to store various members here include:
a battery compartment for storing power supply batteries to drive various electronic circuits for photo taking,
a film cartridge compartment for storing a film cartridge where rolled film for photo taking is stored, and
a spool compartment, for storing an exposed part of rolled film drawn out of the film cartridge, which is rolled and stored maintaining a tight roll.
Of these members to be set and stored in various compartments, the above mentioned power supply battery and film cartridge are generally formed in roughly a cylindrical shape. The battery compartment and film cartridge compartment also normally have roughly a cylindrical shape, where the inner wall face has roughly a curved shape. The above mentioned film cartridge compartment is generally formed to have roughly a cylindrical shape, which is the optimum shape to house a rolled film.
A conventional camera, on the other hand, is normally structured such that the outside of the camera main body is covered with such outer members as a front side cover member and rear side cover member. And the various above mentioned compartments are formed by devising the internal shape of the camera main body and outer members.
FIG. 13
is an enlarged cross-sectional view depicting only the portion around the battery compartment in a conventional camera. As
FIG. 13
shows, in a conventional camera
100
, the walls
103
a
and
103
b
of the various compartments, such as film cartridge compartment
121
and battery compartment
109
, are formed by devising the internal shape of the camera main body member
103
and the outer members (front side cover member
101
, rear side cover member
102
, back face cover member, etc.) so that predetermined spaces are formed. And on the inner wall faces of the various compartments formed in this way, various holes and convex/concave portions required for various functions, exist. To cover the various holes and convex/concave portions and to form an appearance for the inner wall faces of the compartments, a sheet member (protective sheet)
120
may be disposed along the inner wall faces. In this case, the sheet member (protective sheet)
120
is normally secured to the inner wall faces of the compartments by such means as gluing.
As
FIG. 13
shows, various members such as a battery contact piece
106
are disposed in the battery compartment
109
. The battery compartment
109
is formed so that the aperture thereof is freely opened and closed by the battery compartment cover
104
. This battery compartment cover
104
is disposed on the side face of the camera
100
, for example, and is disposed to be pivoted by the spindle
105
which is disposed so as to rotate in the arrow X direction in
FIG. 13
, with respect to the rear side cover member
102
. By this, the battery compartment cover
104
opens/closes the aperture of the battery compartment
109
, and when the cover
104
is in the closed position, the cover
104
constitutes a part of the battery compartment
109
. The state shown in
FIG. 13
is the state when the battery compartment cover
104
is at the open position where the battery compartment
109
is opened.
Various information may be indicated on the above mentioned conventional protective sheet
120
. In other words, means of storing the member to be stored in a compartment, such as the insertion direction and type of battery, may be indicated in a predetermined visible format on the display section (not shown) by printing or some other means.
Such a conventional protective sheet
120
is formed by such means as coating glue on the back face, and the protective sheet is secured at a predetermined position in the compartment by the adhesive strength of the glue.
For a conventional camera, various means to implement additional functions have been proposed and commercialized, such as a means for recording information related to the photographed frame, character information on the date at that moment, for example, at a predetermined position on the film at the same time when a desired object image is photographed and exposed on film. At the same time, an inexpensive camera, where such various additional functions are omitted, is also demanded.
So in order to manufacture a camera with various additional functions and a camera without these additional functions, efforts to decrease the manufacturing cost have been made by making the basic structure of cameras common so as to share a camera main body and basic elements, including a photographing lens.
In this case, for the camera main body to be the base, a form where various additional functions can be included is manufactured, and a plurality of types of cameras are manufactured, depending on whether components related to various functions are installed or not.
If a camera without various additional functions is manufactured in this way, unnecessary holes are formed at positions where components, according to predetermined additional functions, are supposed to be installed. If such unnecessary holes exist, beams of light or dust may enter inside the camera main body, which may cause various problems. If an unnecessary hole is at a position which the user can see from the outside, the external design is affected.
Considering this, in a conventional camera which is manufactured with common members, the above mentioned unnecessary holes, which exist in the case of a camera where additional functions are omitted, are covered with the above mentioned sheet material or some other means, so as to prevent beams of light or dust from entering inside the camera main body, considering external design.
Here, a conventional camera with a date information printing mechanism to implement a function to record date information at a predetermined position on the film face interlocking with the exposure operation executed when a photo is taken will be considered.
FIG. 14
is a perspective view depicting a conventional camera which has a date information printing mechanism as an additional function viewed from the back face side of the camera. In
FIG. 14
, the back face cover member
110
of the camera is fully opened.
In this state, the film cartridge compartment
121
, to set a film cartridge (not shown), the film compartment
131
with a spool shaft
132
which is pivoted so as to freely rotate, and the aperture section for photography
115
to guide the luminous flux from the photographing lens (not shown) to the film surface, is opened toward the back face side.
A pressure plate
111
is disposed at a predetermined position roughly near the center of the back face cover member
110
which faces the aperture for photographing
115
when the back face cover member
110
is closed. A predetermined date information printing mechanism (details not shown) is disposed in a space between the pressure plate
111
and the back face cover member
110
. A date information printing section
112
is formed at a predetermined position of the pressure plate
111
. A contact for communication
113
is disposed at a predetermined position in the back face cover member
110
, and the contact section
113
a
is exposed outside.
A movable contact unit (not shown) is disposed near the top portion of the spool compartment
131
in the camera
100
. This movable contact unit includes the contact
114
for communicating with the date information printing mechanism, which will be described later. This
Kobayashi Yuji
Yagi Hitoshi
Yokoyama Kunio
Blackman Rochelle
Frishauf Holtz Goodman & Chick P.C.
Gray David M.
Olympus Optical Co,. Ltd.
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