JPH061325B2 - Film information reader - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a case where a film cartridge having an electric contact (cord portion) for transmitting information such as the number of shots of the film and sensitivity is mounted on the outer surface of the cartridge in the camera. , A film information reading device for reading information by the electric contact.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a film is loaded in a camera, it is necessary to set an exposure meter and an automatic exposure device of the camera according to the sensitivity of the film and store the number of shots of the film. However, in recent years, as shown in Fig. 1 from the Eastman Kodak Company of the United States, the outer surface of the film cartridge (1) has 12
A film is available that has one electrical contact (1a) (camera auto-sensing code, hereafter referred to as CAS code) and can transmit information on film sensitivity, number of shots, and exposure range to the camera. The use of the film eliminates the above-mentioned trouble. In order to read the film information with this CAS code, it is necessary to install a reading device having a contact corresponding to the CAS code in the camera's cartridge room. By the way, the film cartridge has a lid (1b) for closing both ends as shown in FIG. 1 (B).
However, the diameter is larger than the part where the contact (1a) of the CAS code is attached, and the contact on the camera side is at least the difference in this diameter.
Only (h) needs to protrude from the wall of the Patrone chamber.
In addition, since the film cartridge has a certain degree of warping and unevenness on the part where the contact (1a) of the CAS code is attached,
If the contact on the camera side does not protrude further than the above (h), the connection cannot be surely made.

On the other hand, looking at the camera's film cartridge room,
As shown in FIG. 2, a rewinding fork (13) is installed. This fork (13) protrudes into the film cartridge chamber to engage with the key formed on the shaft of the loaded cartridge, so that it will not interfere with the removal of the film together with the rewind knob (14). Many are configured to be retracted upwards. However, in order to retract the fork (13) upward, an extra space for the fork (13) to enter the upper part (11a) of the camera body (11) is required, so this space can be used effectively. In some cases, the fork does not retract in order to do so.
Further, in many automatic rewinding type cameras, a space for a fork to enter is omitted because the rewinding mechanism is installed, and the fork does not retract. In that case, the film cartridge is loaded with the movement of the cartridge non-axis in the extension direction. That is, as shown by an arrow A in the figure, the glass is moved diagonally upward from below the glass in the cartridge chamber.

When the above CAS code reader is installed in such a camera, the corner of the tip of the film cartridge inserted at an angle is caught by the contact point of the reader (protruding as described above), and the loading cannot be performed smoothly. There is an inconvenience. In order to eliminate this inconvenience, it is conceivable that the contacts can be moved so that when the corners of the cartridge come into contact with each other, they are retracted into the wall of the cartridge chamber. However, such a configuration is possible only when the protrusion amount of the contact is extremely small, and when the protrusion amount becomes large to some extent, the corner of the cartridge comes into contact with the contact from the lateral direction, and the contact is retracted. Can't do it. Actually, the protrusion amount of the contact is required to be about 1.5 mm to 2 mm in order to ensure the electrical connection, and the above structure cannot prevent the cartridge from being caught.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention The present invention relates to a camera in which the loading of a film cartridge has to be accompanied by a movement in the extension direction of the cartridge shaft for reasons such as the fact that the film rewinding fork does not retract. When a film cartridge having an electric contact for use is loaded, a contact for reading information is provided in contact with this electric contact, and this contact is surely connected to the contact of the film cartridge so that the information can be accurately read. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a film information reading device configured so as not to hinder the loading of the film cartridge.

Means for Solving the Problems According to the present invention, an opening is formed in a wall of a film cartridge chamber of a camera so as to open toward the inside of the film cartridge chamber, and a base member is arranged in the opening portion. It is movable so that the amount of protrusion into the room changes.

Further, an opening portion that opens toward the inside of the patrone chamber is also formed in this base member, and an electric contact member for transmitting an electric signal to the camera via the transmission member is movably installed in the patrone chamber. It is designed to be movable so that the amount of protrusion to is changed.

Further, a biasing means for biasing the electric contact member and the base member in a direction in which the electric contact member projects into the cartridge chamber is provided to reduce the amount of projection of the electric contact member from the base member.

Further, this electric contact member is configured to come into contact with one of the electric contacts (cord portion) of the film cartridge at a plurality of points.

Operation Since the present invention reduces the amount of protrusion of the electrical contact member from the base member as described above, when loading the film cartridge,
The electric contact member with which the cartridge comes into contact easily withdraws into the base member against the urging force to allow the cartridge to be loaded.
Further, by projecting the base member itself from the film cartridge chamber wall, the electric contact member largely protrudes from the film cartridge chamber wall. Touch the contacts. In addition, as described above, since this electric contact member is configured to come into contact with one of the electric contacts (cord portion) of the film cartridge at a plurality of points, the electric contact member may be rusted or dirty. Even if contact failure occurs at one contact portion, contact is made at another contact portion, so that more reliable reading of film information becomes possible.

Embodiments Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
3 to 7 show a first embodiment of the present invention,
As the film cartridge, the one with the CAS code shown in FIG. 1 (A) is used. FIG. 3 is a rear view of the camera with the back cover removed. Camera body (11)
A film cartridge chamber (12) is provided on the left side, a sprocket (17) and a spool (18) are provided on the right side, and an exposure opening (16) is formed between them. Film Patrone Room (12)
The film pulled out from the film cartridge loaded in the film passes along the guide rail (15) in front of the exposure opening (rear of the camera) in the figure, and is wound up by the sprocket (17) and wound on the peripheral body of the spool (18). It is configured to be. A fork (13) is installed in the film cartridge room (12). The fork (13) is for rewinding the loaded film after the photographing is finished, and is engaged with a key formed on the shaft of the film cartridge. The fork consists of a base portion (13a) and a claw portion (13b) .The claw portion (13b) is urged downward and can be retracted into the base portion (13a) against the urging force. Since the automatic rewinding device, the electric circuit board, etc. are installed above the (13) and there is no space for the fork to enter, the base (13a)
Cannot be retracted into the camera body (11). Claw
The reason why (13b) is movable up and down is that the key and the claw (13b) do not always engage accurately when the film cartridge is loaded, in which case the claw (13b) is retracted. , The film is sent slightly, and the key and nail (13
The key and the claw portion (13b) are engaged only when b) exactly faces each other. In addition, since the base of the fork (13a) does not retract,
The film cartridge cannot be loaded at a right angle to the cartridge axis, that is, from the rear of the camera to the front,
The camera must be loaded from the lower rear side to the upper diagonal front. In order to facilitate this loading operation, the lower portion (11b) of the camera body (11) is opened as shown in FIG. 4 so that the lower rear portion of the film cartridge chamber is opened when the back lid of the camera is opened. It is U-shaped.

In the film cartridge chamber (12), a frame body (21) which itself constitutes a part of the wall of the cartridge chamber, a base material (22) which slides in an opening (21a) formed in the frame body, and Base material (22) 12 contact pins (23) that slide in the 12 openings (22a) formed
Is installed. These will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6. 4 and 5 are cross-sectional views of the camera taken along a horizontal plane. FIG. 4 is a state in which the back cover is closed without the film cartridge being loaded, and FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged view when the film cartridge is loaded. . Further, FIG. 6 shows a state in which the film cartridge is not loaded in a cross section of the camera taken in the vertical direction.

The camera body (11) is formed by integrally molding plastic and metal, and the periphery of the exposure opening (16), which requires strength, is made of metal, and the other part is made of plastic material. The wall of the cartridge chamber forming the film cartridge chamber (12) is a front wall and the left end side wall of the camera is a plastic wall (11c), and the center side wall of the camera is a metal wall (11d). A rectangular opening (11e) that is long in the vertical direction of the camera is formed at a position near the center of the camera on the front side of the camera on the wall of the cartridge chamber. Inside the opening (11e), a frame body (21) which itself constitutes a part of the wall of the Patrone chamber is fixed. The frame (2
In 1), the rectangular opening (21
a) has been formed. The opening (21a) has a narrow width on the inner side of the film cartridge, and a wide width on the outer side of the film cartridge, and a cross section (21b) is formed between them.

A base material (22) made of an insulating material is fitted into the opening (21a) so as to be slidable in the radial direction of the film cartridge loaded. The base material (22) has a vertically long shape and has a circular opening (22a) extending along the sliding direction of itself. The base material (23) has a brim portion (22b) that spreads laterally outward at the end of the film patrone outside the room, and a second brim portion that expands radially inside the opening (22a) at the end near the interior of the patrone ( 22c) has been formed. Incidentally, as shown in FIG. 3, there are 12 openings (22a) formed along the vertical direction of the camera.

A contact pin (23) made of a conductive material is slidably fitted in each opening (22a) of the base material (22). The contact pin (23)
The film is close to the inside of the film cartridge, medium and thick, and is formed to be the thinnest toward the outside of the film cartridge.
A step surface (23b) is formed between the inner side and the middle, and another step surface (23c) is formed between the middle and the outer side. Contact pin
Of the (23), the inner end of the film cartridge has a gentle and smooth convex curved surface.

The base material (22) and the contact pin (23) are fitted into the openings (21a) and (22a) from the outside of the film cartridge to the inside, respectively,
Holding member (26) by sandwiching the spring (24) and flexible substrate (25)
It is held irremovably by. The spring (24) is the step (2
The contact pin (23) is urged toward the inside of the cartridge chamber by coming into contact with 3c), and the base material (22) is further urged via the contact pin (23). In the assembled state, the base material (22) from the frame body (21) protrudes the contact pins (23) from the base material (22) to the inside of the patrone, respectively, and the step surface (21b) of the frame body (21). ) And the brim portion (22b) of the base material (22) and the second brim portion (22c) of the base material (22) and the step surface (23b) of the contact pin (23) are projected. The amount is regulated. At this time, the protrusion of the contact pin (23) from the base material (22) is slight, but the base material (2
2) Since it itself projects from the frame body (21), the amount of projection as a whole is large. The spring (24) is made of a conductive material, and has one end contacting a contact pin (23) and the other end contacting a conductive pattern formed on the flexible substrate (25) to electrically connect the two. One contact pin (23) is arranged in each opening (22a), and 12 pins are installed in total. As shown in FIG.
The set of contact pins are connected to the same conductive pattern on the flexible substrate. The pair of contact pins are arranged in such positions as to contact the same electric contacts on the film cartridge when the film cartridge is loaded.

A part of the flexible substrate (25) and the pressing member (26) are extended to form a metal wall (11d) of the film cartridge chamber wall.
It is fastened with screws (27). The circuit pattern on the flexible board (25) includes a grounding conductive pattern.This grounding conductive pattern is extended to the fixing part with the screw (27) and pressed against the metal wall (11d) with the screw (27). And electrically connected, and the metal wall (11d) is grounded.

Next, the operation when the film cartridge is loaded in this embodiment will be described. FIG. 6 shows a state in which the film cartridge chamber is not loaded, and shows a main part of a surface obtained by cutting the film cartridge chamber in the vertical direction. At this time, both the base material (22) and the contact pin (23) are located at the most protruding positions toward the inside of the film cartridge. From this state, the film cartridge (1) is loaded. The corner of the tip of the film patrone (1) is the base material (22) first.
Contacting the base plate (22) and contact pin (23) against the biasing force of the spring (24) by pushing the film cartridge.
Are pushed together. After that, the corner of the film cartridge slides on the base material (22) and the contact pin (23) as shown in FIG.
Abut. The amount of protrusion of the contact pin (23) with respect to the base material (22) is small as already described, and since the tip of the contact pin (23) is formed into a gentle convex curved surface, the film cartridge (1) The tip smoothly rides on the contact pin (23), and the contact pin (23) is pushed into the base material (22). When the tip angle of the film cartridge (1) first contacts the contact pin (23), the contact pin (23) is pushed against the biasing force of the spring (24), and then the base material (22) is It is pushed in by the tip angle of the film cartridge.

As the film cartridge (1) was pushed in, the tip passed over this while pushing in the contact pins (23) one after another,
Key (1c) formed on the film cartridge (1) as shown
The fork (13) in the film cartridge chamber is brought into the engageable state, and the film cartridge (1) is completely loaded in the film cartridge chamber. 5th in this state
As shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 8, the base material (22) is almost in contact with the peripheral surface of the film cartridge (1), and the contact pin (23) is connected to the spring (2
The tip is pressed against the CAS code contact (1a) on the film cartridge (1) by the urging force of (4) to be electrically connected. At this time, the contact pins that form a set of two come into contact with the same CAS code contact for each set. At this time, since the peripheral surface of the film cartridge (1) may have some warpage or unevenness, the base material does not always completely adhere to the film cartridge, but each contact pin (23) is attached to each spring ( Make sure that the contact point (1a) of the CAS code is pressed by the urging force of 24). In addition, even if one of the contact pins in the set causes a contact failure due to dust or dirt adhering to the film cartridge, the connection is maintained by the other contact pin.
It does not cause a poor connection. According to the contact pattern on the film cartridge, each contact pin is, for example, a flexible board via a spring (24) that also functions as a transmission member of the film sensitivity.
(25) It is transmitted to the circuit above and the information is used for automatic exposure of the camera.

When the film cartridge (1) is taken out, if the film cartridge (1) is moved in the opposite direction when loading, first the brim-shaped protruding part of the lid (1b) of the film cartridge is the base material.
After climbing onto (22), climb onto the tip of each contact pin (23) one after another to complete the removal. Note that the base (22) is already in a state of being largely pushed in at the time of taking it out, and since the corners of the base are formed into smooth curved surfaces, the lid (1b)
The operation of the protruding portion of the vehicle running on the base material (22) is smoothly performed.

FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 show another embodiment of the present invention. As with the first embodiment, among the six contact pins (23) installed, only six and three pairs of the contact pins (upper side of the camera) are arranged in the first embodiment. It has the same structure as the above, and the 6 sets of 3 pieces on the lower side are directly installed on the wall of the film cartridge chamber, not on the base material. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, the contact pins (23 ') in the lower half are largely projected, but the tip corners of the film cartridge come into contact with each other when the film cartridge is inserted and removed as shown in FIG. In general, the pins are installed near the upper part of the film cartridge chamber, and there is substantially no problem even if the present invention is not applied to the lower pins.

FIG. 11 shows still another embodiment, in which the contact pins (23) are arranged in two rows of 12 pairs in each row and a total of 24 pairs of 12 pairs.
It is electrically connected to all the contacts of the CAS code that is formed at 12 places in total. Therefore, all the information such as the film sensitivity information, the number of shots information, and the exposure allowable range information can be read.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the number of contact pins is arbitrarily determined according to the information to be read. Also,
The transmission member may be provided separately without being combined with the urging means. Further, the electric contact member may have a ball-like shape instead of a pin.

In the above description, the set of contact pins that contact the same electric contact on the film cartridge are arranged in the vertical direction of the camera (the extending direction of the film cartridge axis).
Not limited to this, they may be arranged in any direction. In particular, by arranging them on the diagonal line of the electrical contacts, the gap between the contact pins can be widened,
A space is provided for the contact pin installation space, and when one of the contact pins gets dirty and the other contact pin gets on the dirt, the other contact pin can contact the clean part. It is convenient in many cases.

As described above, according to the present invention, in a camera using a film cartridge having electric contacts for transmitting information of the film, an opening extending in the radial direction of the cartridge is formed in the film cartridge chamber wall of the camera. Then
A base member is installed in the opening so that the base member is displaceable between a projecting position protruding into the film cartridge chamber and a retracted position, and an opening is also formed in the base member to form an opening in the opening. For each desired electric contact of the film cartridge, an electric contact member configured to make contact at a plurality of positions per one electric contact is arranged, and the electric contact member is displaceable between a protruding position and a retracted position. Thus, the urging means for urging the base member and the electric contact in the protruding direction is provided.
As a result, the film rewinding fork provided in the film patrone chamber does not retreat, and the film patrone loading operation is accompanied by movement in the patrone axis extension direction. When a contact for reading information from a film cartridge attached with a contact for transmitting information such as an allowable range is provided, the protrusion amount of the electric contact member itself is reduced to prevent the film cartridge from being caught, and includes the base member. In addition, the total protrusion amount is increased to ensure the connection, and at least one of the plurality of contact points of the electric contact member is connected.
Since it suffices that the location is in contact with the electrical contact of the film cartridge, it is possible to obtain the film information reading device which can surely read the film information via the transmission member.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 (A) is a perspective view of a film cartridge having contacts on its outer surface, FIG. 1 (B) is a side view of the same film cartridge, and FIG. 2 is a partial rear view showing a conventional camera, FIG. Is a rear view showing the first embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 4 and 5 are lateral cross-sectional views of the essential part of the same embodiment, and FIGS. 6 to 8 are operation explanatory views of the same embodiment, and FIG. Is a rear view showing a second embodiment of the present invention, 10 is a longitudinal sectional view of an essential part of the same embodiment, and FIG. 11 is a rear view showing a third embodiment of the present invention. 1 ... film cartridge, 1a ... electrical contact, 11 ... camera,
11c, 11d, 21 ... Film cartridge chamber wall, 12 ... Film cartridge chamber, 21a ... Opening, 22 ... Stand member, 22a ... Opening, 23 ...
Electrical contact member, 24 ... Energizing means, 24 ... Transmission member.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A film patrone having a plurality of code parts for transmitting information of a film on its outer surface has a contact electrically connected to the code part, and a patrone shaft for loading operation of the film patrone. In a camera involving movement of a film cartridge in a stretching direction, a film opening is formed on a wall of the film cartridge chamber and opens toward the film cartridge chamber, and the film is movably installed in the first opening. A base member that is movable so as to change the amount of protrusion into the patrone chamber and has a second opening that opens toward the patrone chamber; and a movably installed inside the second opening, An electrical contact member that is movable so that the amount of protrusion changes, and the electrical contact member and the base member are projected into the cartridge chamber. Urging means for urging in a direction, and a transmission member for electrically connecting the electric contact member and the electric means of the camera, wherein the electric contact member is provided at a plurality of positions with respect to one of the cord portions. A film information reading device, which is provided so as to be in contact with each other. 2. The film information reading device according to claim 1, wherein the electric contact member has a convex curved surface at a protruding portion when the electric contact member is most protruded from the base member. 3. The film information reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the urging means is made of a conductive material and doubles as a transmission member. 4. The film information reading device according to claim 1, wherein the electric contact members are provided in the same number as the code portions formed in the film cartridge. apparatus. 5. The number of electric contact members is smaller than the number of cord portions formed on the film cartridge, and the electric contact members are provided so as to contact only a part of the cord portions. The film information reader according to any one of claims 1 to 3.