Optical: systems and elements – Lens – With support
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-08
2001-05-08
Epps, Georgia (Department: 2873)
Optical: systems and elements
Lens
With support
C359S819000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06229658
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a pivoting device for pivoting a pivoting objective disposed concentrically therein about two pivoting axes that intersect at a right angle in an axis point of intersection in the optical axis of the pivoting objective, the pivoting objective being held in an objective holder, which is seated in bearings so as to pivot in two degrees of freedom of a spherical surface, the bearings being disposed on a stationary holding frame, on which two pivoting-control elements are fixedly held, one of which is operatively connected to a meridian sector gear, while the other is operatively connected to an equatorial sector gear, of the objective holder, the latter being disposed on the objective holder so as to pivot and be displaced in a meridian plane.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A pivoting device of this type is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,598 A. The spherical objective holder is seated on its spherical surface. It has a sector-gear drive with a meridian orientation, and an equatorial sector-gear drive, which is oriented orthogonally thereto, and whose sector gear is located on a sphere segment that can pivot about the axis of the equatorial drive, and whose pivoting axis is displaceable in a groove in the sphere segment, the groove lying in a meridian plane. The drive pinion can be conical to complement the sector gear, and the gear shaft is guided in an equatorial groove on the sphere segment. The drive torque of the gear on the sector gear causes the sphere segment to drift in the groove, depending on the direction of the torque, so no unique relationship exists between the meridian and equatorial objective pivoting and the setting rotations of the two drives, which suffices to pan an objective, but is inadequate for a purposeful camera objective setting.
Furthermore, DE 296 096 U1 discloses a camera setting device in which a cylindrical seating is provided at the foot of an objective frame for pivoting the frame about an axis that intersects the objective axis, and a pivotable seating about a vertical axis that intersects with the other pivoting axis in the optical axis is provided on the seated cylinder segment. Because of the large spacing between the pivot bearing and the optical axis, the bellows adjoining the objective standard often interferes with the beam path when the bellows swings out hard; moreover, the bellows is severely mechanically stressed by a buckling that occurs in the process. Avoiding this often requires a new presetting of the entire camera device. These problems are particularly serious in the use of wide-angle objectives.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the invention to improve the pivoting device mentioned at the outset, in which the holder, the attached operating elements for setting the pivoting and the bellows are stationary, and essentially only the pivoting objective is pivoted therein, such that the pivoting is unambiguously associated with the adjustment of the setting elements.
The object is accomplished in that the meridian and equatorial sector gears are guided by an anti-rotation mechanism, which secures them against relative rotation, on a circle, with respect to the holding frame, about the axis point of intersection, and the equatorial sector gear can be pivoted in a pivot bearing and displaceably seated in a guide on a meridian circle on the objective holder for an ecliptic pivoting compensation.
The protection against relative rotation is preferably provided by a guide runner that is secured to the holder, in cooperation with a guide groove cut into the pivot bearing of the sector gear.
The pivot bearing of the sector gear is preferably embodied as a round calotte-shell plate or cap that is preferably seated to rotate about a central axis, preferably in a depression of the objective holder.
For the ecliptic pivoting compensation, the bearing depression in the objective holder extends along a meridian.
In an embodiment of the pivoting device that is especially simple to drive, two equatorial sector gears having associated angular wheels, and two meridian sector gears having associated, further angular wheels are mirror-symmetrical with respect to the axis center point, with the sector gears, which are located opposite one another on the pivoting objective holder, cooperating in pairs and in the same direction to pivot the holder, and the angular wheels being respectively seated on a bearing pin in a bearing housing that is located in the holding frame and has lateral openings; the bearing housing projects with the guide runner, with support and guidance, into the guide groove, which is embodied in one of the associated calotte-shell plates, with the meridian sector gears being embodied in one of the round calotte-shell plates that are only pivotably seated in the objective holder, and with the equatorial sector gears being embodied in one of the round calotte-shell plates that are seated to pivot and be displaced along a meridian in the guide embodied as a pivoting-compensation depression in the objective holder to attain an ecliptic pivoting compensation.
The annular objective holder is advantageously embodied as a sphere segment, and the two annular bearing shells are embodied in a complementary fashion as hollow-sphere segments. The two sphere surfaces lend guidance, support and light blockage to the two nested device parts. To increase the sliding properties of the seating, the two complementary sphere surfaces are advantageously only embodied partially, but overall, such that their mutual guidance is clearly assured by a sufficient number of support points or, better yet, by linear or surface contacting in all pivoting positions.
The sector gears of the pivot drives of the objective holder are advantageously manufactured separately from the holder, and incorporated into calotte-shell plates that are embedded in matching recesses cut into the surface of the objective holder. It is advantageously provided to seat the calotte-shell plate to rotate about its center axis in the one pivoting axis, and to rotate the plate and execute a compensating meridian displacement in the second pivoting axis, which is necessary when a pivoting has already occurred in the first axis, and the further pivoting is to be effected subsequently in the second axis. Depending on the respective pivoting about the first axis according to the type of different equatorial position with respect to the ecliptic, i.e., the stationary pivoting-axis position in the holder, this second axis then has an increasing inclination with respect to the initial position on the inside sphere as the second axis pivots further. Thus, the axis position of the second pivoting axis fixedly disposed in the holder drifts on the meridian on the inside sphere, that is, the objective holder, when a pivoting about both axes is effected.
The design of the calotte-shell segments allows the drive elements to be embedded between them. It is especially advantageous to transmit the drive originating from the setting elements via coaxial adjusting rings to the drive pinions that adjust the sector gears of the objective carrier. The two coaxial adjusting rings are seated to slide one on top of the other in an annular recess in one of the calotte shells, and are provided with rim-gear segments. One of the rim-gear segments comes into contact with the associated adjusting drive, and two oppositely-located rim-gear sectors respectively drive an associated adjusting angular wheel symmetrically relative to the center point of the sphere. The two adjusting rings have rim-gear sectors that are offset from one another and are guided in associated recesses of the calotte shell.
It has proven especially advantageous to arrange the rim-gear sectors that are on the side of the angular wheels at ribs extending perpendicular from the adjusting ring, resulting in an L-shaped profile having a reinforced curvature through a cylinder segment in these sectors.
On the drive side, the further rim-gear sector is mounted to the edge side, and enters an operative
Browdy and Neimark
Epps Georgia
Thompson Timothy
LandOfFree
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