Television – Camera – system and detail – Optics
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-10
2004-10-12
Ho, Tuan (Department: 2612)
Television
Camera, system and detail
Optics
C348S335000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06803961
ABSTRACT:
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE
The disclosures of the following priority application are herein incorporated by reference:
Japanese Patent Application No. 10-67019 filed Mar. 17, 1998
Japanese Patent Application No. 11-181531 filed Jun. 28, 1999
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image-capturing apparatus and an electronic still camera having an image-capturing element held by a holder for mounting the image-capturing element to the body. In addition, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for processing the mounting surface of the holder.
The present invention also relates to a metal member contact structure, and more specifically, it elates to a contact structure of a plurality of types of metal materials having different corrosion potentials, and an image-capturing apparatus and a camera adopting this contact structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an electronic still camera, a subject image from a photographic lens must be accurately formed on the image-capturing element in order to obtain a high quality image. The image-capturing element, which is held in a package, is mounted at the camera body by attaching the package to the camera body. However, since the dimensions of the light-receiving surface of the image-capturing element and the mounting surface of the package include errors that occur during the production process, the desired degree of dimensional accuracy cannot be achieved simply by attaching the package to the mounting surface of the camera body. Thus, the position of the image-capturing element relative to the photographic lens is adjusted or the position of the photographic lens is adjusted with respect to the image-capturing element after attaching the package to the camera body.
In the case of a camera with an interchangeable lens such as a single lens reflex camera, the interchangeable lens is mounted at the lens mount surface, which necessitates a mounting adjustment to be performed to ensure that the image-capturing element is mounted at a specific position relative to the lens mount surface. For this purpose, in the prior art, the image-capturing element package is fitted at the camera body together with a positional adjustment mechanism, a reference pattern is projected on the image-capturing element for display on a monitor and the position of the image-capturing element is adjusted with the positional adjustment mechanism while checking the image on the monitor.
The positional adjustment mechanism, which may be provided with, for instance, three screws located at the individual apexes of a triangular shape and a spring to take up slack, adjusts the position of the image-capturing element by advancing or retracting the three screws.
However, if the positional adjustment mechanism is housed in the camera body together with the image-capturing element as in the prior art, the camera will become large. In addition, it will be necessary to perform readjustment when the image-capturing element is mounted again after it has been detached for maintenance and inspection of the camera, which results in poor operability and poor maintainability.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an image-capturing apparatus and an electronic still camera that achieve improvements in operability and maintainability by eliminating the necessity for a positional adjustment mechanism for the image-capturing element.
In order to achieve the object described above, the electronic still camera according to the present invention is provided with an image-capturing element that receives light from a subject image entering into a camera body through a photographic lens and a holder that holds the image-capturing element to secure it to the camera body, with a camera-side mounting surface formed at the camera body in reference to the image-forming plane of the photographic lens, a holder-side mounting surface formed at the holder relative to the light-receiving surface of the image-capturing element and the light-receiving surface aligned with the image-forming plane by placing the camera-side mounting surface and the holder-side mounting surface in contact with each other and mounting the image-capturing element at the camera body.
Alternatively, the electronic still camera according to the present invention is provided with an image-capturing element that receives light from a subject image entering into the camera body through an interchangeable photographic lens and a holder that holds the image-capturing element to secure it to the camera body, with a camera-side mounting surface formed at the camera body in reference to a mounting surface for the photographic lens formed at the camera body, a holder-side mounting surface formed at the holder relative to the light-receiving surface of the image-capturing element and the light-receiving surface aligned with the image-forming plane by placing the camera-side mounting surface and the holder-side mounting surface in contact with each other and mounting the image-capturing element at the camera body.
In either of these electronic still cameras, the camera body may be constituted of a material having a first corrosion potential with mounting seats constituted of a material having a second corrosion potential higher than the first corrosion potential secured to the camera body and the holder may be constituted of a material having a third corrosion potential higher than the second corrosion potential. For instance, the camera body may be constituted of a magnesium alloy, the mounting seats may be constituted of an aluminum alloy and the holder may be constituted of brass.
The mounting surface for the photographic lens extends in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, the camera-side mounting surface is parallel to the mounting surface for the photographic lens and the holder-side mounting surface extends parallel to the light-receiving surface of the image-capturing element.
The camera-side mounting surface and the holder-side mounting surface each include a contact surface that defines the holder position relative to the camera body within a plane extending perpendicular to the optical axis.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for facilitating the processing of an mounting surface of a holder to be attached to an image-capturing apparatus or an electronic still camera.
In order to achieve the object described above, the method for processing a holder-side mounting surface according to the present invention includes a step in which a specific pattern is projected at an image-capturing element held by a holder, a step in which an image signal from the image-capturing element at which the pattern is being projected is input, a step in which a position of the holder-side mounting surface relative to a cutter is calculated based upon the image signal thus input and a step in which the holder-side mounting surface is machined with the cutter by moving the holder in conformance to the calculated position.
Alternatively, in order to achieve the object described above, the method for processing a holder-side mounting surface according to the present invention comprises a step in which a focal point adjustment is implemented for a microscope whose focal point has been adjusted in advance to the holder-side mounting surface to adjacent the focal point to a light-receiving surface of an image-capturing element held by a holder, a step in which the quantity of focal adjustment misalignment at the microscope occurring during the focal adjustment is detected, a step in which a position of the holder-side mounting surface relative to a cutter is calculated based upon the misalignment quantity thus detected and a step in which the holder is moved in conformance to the calculated position to process the holder-side mounting surface with the cutter. In this processing method, the cutter is positioned so that it is capable of machining the holder-side mounting surface that has not been
Ezawa Akira
Kowno Yousuke
Nishijima Katsumasa
Osawa Keiji
Takada Tomoyuki
Ho Tuan
Nikon Corporation
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
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