JPH10191118A - Image pickup device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To adjust an eyepiece section to an optimum position independently of a posture of the image pickup device by expanding/contracting a finder support member so as to adjust the position of the eyepiece section. SOLUTION: A finder support member 18 is made up of a main arm whose upper end (lower end) connects to a view finder 12 and tripod 10 and up of an elevating/descending arm 20 that is supported in the inside of the main arm 19 and is freely expanded/contracted vertically from an upper end of the main arm 19. An operation handle 38 is turned to expand/contract vertically the elevating/descending arm 20 so as to adjust the entire length of the finder support member 18 thereby changing vertically a position of a finder connection section 24. Then the view finder 12 is turned upward or downward around a support 21, then the view finder takes an optimum state to allow the user to peep an eyepiece section 13 from the back part of the camera 1. Furthermore, the length of a mirror barrel 14 consisting of an outer cylinder 15 and an inner cylinder 16 in the view finder is adjusted to adjust a position of the eyepiece section 13 in the forward/backward direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus which can adjustably hold the position of an eyepiece of a viewfinder.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A large-sized camera-integrated video tape recorder, which is one of the imaging apparatuses used for business use, and especially news coverage at a television station or the like (E).
In general, an operation system used for NG) (hereinafter simply referred to as an “ENG camera”) has an operation system suitable for a use state in which an image is taken by placing it on a shoulder of a photographer and supporting it. , The position of the eyepiece of the viewfinder, the weight balance, and the like are designed. For example,
The eyepiece of the viewfinder of the ENG camera is ENG
It is provided near the front of the ENG camera so that when the camera is placed on the shoulder and supported, it just comes to the position of the photographer's eyes.

[0003] As described above, such an ENG camera is originally designed to be used by placing it on a photographer's shoulder and supporting it, so that the ENG camera is fixed to a tripod or the like. In such a case, there is a problem that the position of the eyepiece of the viewfinder does not match the use condition.
That is, when using the ENG camera fixed on a tripod or the like, fix the ENG camera at a considerably high position so that the eyepiece is aligned with the eye position of the photographer, and do not look into the eyepiece from the left side. Not be.

In view of this, a large-sized eyepiece is changed from a normal viewfinder so that the eyepiece is positioned further rearward, and when the camera is fixed to a tripod or the like, the eyepiece can be seen from behind the ENG camera. A viewfinder is used.
Such a large viewfinder is attached to an ENG camera, for example, by replacing it with an ordinary viewfinder, or attached to an ordinary viewfinder so as to extend the eyepiece section backward. Has become. In such a large viewfinder, since a lens, a prism, and the like are incorporated therein, it is heavy and cannot stand alone.
Therefore, such a large viewfinder is ENG
The structure is such that the camera is supported from below by a finder support member attached to the camera.

[0005]

However, in the ENG camera to which the large viewfinder as described above is attached, the finder support member for supporting the large viewfinder is also attached to the ENG camera itself. Therefore, when the ENG camera is tilted in a usage state in which the ENG camera is fixed to a tripod, the position of the large viewfinder is synchronized with the finder support member supporting the same in synchronization with the change of the posture, and the position of the viewfinder is raised. Alternatively, there is a problem in that the camera is largely moved downward, and an extreme change in the photographing posture of the photographer is forced to match the movement of the position of the eyepiece of the viewfinder.
Therefore, for example, when photographing from a high place on a photographing crane, the photographer cannot perform photographing while sitting in a safe photographing chair or the like because the posture change at the time of photographing is large. The change in the posture causes the balance to be lost, and the user is exposed to the danger of falling from the above crane.

Further, even when photographing at a fixed angle, the position of the eyepiece cannot be finely adjusted, and in some cases, the photographer must continue photographing in an uncomfortable posture. There were things.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to make it possible to always adjust the position of a fixed eyepiece to an optimum position regardless of a change in the attitude of the main body of the imaging device.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, an image pickup apparatus according to the present invention supports a view finder by a finder supporting member which can be adjusted to an arbitrary length by expansion and contraction. The position of the eyepiece is adjusted by expanding and contracting the support member.

Therefore, it is possible to adjust the position of the eyepiece of the viewfinder so as to be in an optimum state.

[0010]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an image pickup apparatus according to the present invention.
In the following embodiment, a so-called EN, in which the image pickup apparatus of the present invention is used for reporting news or the like in a television station or the like, is used.
This is applied to a G camera.

In the following description, when describing the up, down, left, right and front and back directions, in FIG. 1, the up and down direction is the up and down direction, the left is the front, the right is the back, and the left and right directions are , The left and right directions when the ENG camera is viewed from the rear side to the front side.

The ENG camera 1 is a large-sized camera in which a camera and a VTR are integrated, and an imaging lens 3 protrudes forward from a substantially box-shaped main body 2, and is usually provided at a lower portion of the main body 2. The operation system, the viewfinder 5, and the total weight of the shoulder rest 4 formed on the right shoulder of the photographer are supported so that the camera can be optimally operated and supported with both hands. The balance and the like are set. Note that a handle 6 for transportation is provided above the main body 2.
At the front end of the handle 6, a microphone 7 and a finder mount 8 are provided on the left side thereof so as to protrude forward. When photographing is performed in the above state, the eyepiece 9 of the viewfinder 5 is located on the left side of the main body 2 and on the right side of the face of the photographer. This is the state shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG.

When the ENG camera 1 is used by being fixed to the camera platform 11 of a tripod 10, which is a support device for supporting the entire ENG camera 1, the photographer can view the finder from the left side of the tripod in an uncomfortable posture. Since the user has to look into the eyepiece 9 of the camera 5 and shooting is difficult, the standard viewfinder 5 is used.
Is replaced with a large long viewfinder (hereinafter simply referred to as "viewfinder") 12. EN
The viewfinder 1 is attached to the viewfinder mounting section 8 of the G camera 1.
When the camera 2 is attached, the eyepiece 13 is extended rearward of the eyepiece 9 of the viewfinder 5, and as shown in FIG. 1, from the rear of the ENG camera 1 fixed to the tripod 10, as shown in FIG. It is possible to take a picture while looking into the camera. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the tripod 10 is an ENG camera that is located above the tilt fulcrum portion 11 a shown as a circular area in the figure of the camera platform 11. The portion which is attached to the lower surface of the main body 2 and supports it is tilted up and down, and below the tilt fulcrum is a non-movable portion 11b.

The above-described viewfinder 12 has a long front-rear length in order to extend the position of the eyepiece 13 behind the eyepiece 9 of the standard finder 4, and has a substantially cylindrical lens and prism. 14 as appropriate. Furthermore,
The lens barrel 14 has a double structure consisting of an outer cylinder 15 and an inner cylinder 16 attached to the inside thereof so as to be able to expand and contract rearward. As shown in FIG. 1, the viewfinder 12 can change its angle up and down around a fulcrum 17 which is a portion attached to the finder mounting portion 8 of the main body 2. The front and rear positions of the eyepiece 13 can be adjusted by the expansion and contraction of the lens barrel 14.

As described above, the viewfinder 12 is appropriately disposed in a long lens barrel 14 in which a lens, a prism, and the like have a substantially cylindrical shape. Since it is composed of a large inner cylinder 16, it has a considerable weight and size as compared with the viewfinder 5. Therefore, the viewfinder 12 cannot be supported entirely by simply attaching the front fulcrum portion 17 to the finder mounting portion 8 of the main body 2, and the rear portion is supported by the finder support member 18 from below. ing.

The main part of the finder support member 18 is made of a lightweight metal such as aluminum. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the upper end and the lower end are attached to the viewfinder 12 and the tripod 10, and the main arm 19 and And an elevating arm 20 which is supported inside the main arm 19 and is vertically extendable from the upper end of the main arm 19. The main arm 19 has, at its lower end, a substantially cylindrical rotating fulcrum 21 projecting rightward, an elevating operation unit 22 occupying a substantially square area when viewed from the left at an intermediate position in the vertical direction, and a stopper at the upper end. Parts 23 are provided respectively. Further, a finder connecting portion 24 is integrally formed at the upper end of the lifting arm 20.

As shown in FIG. 4, the main arm 19 is provided with an elongated upper half 25 and a lower half
Extend upward and downward, respectively.
Front walls of the upper half 25, the lower half 26, and the elevating operation unit 22,
A case body 27 in which the rear wall and the right wall are integrally formed and open to the left, and an opening of the upper half 25 and the lower half 26 of the case body 27 and an opening of the elevating operation unit 22 are appropriately screwed or the like. These are individually covered with substantially plate-shaped lids 28, 29 and 30 fixed by the method.

That is, the upper half 25 of the main arm 19 is
As shown in FIG. 6 and FIG.
7 is formed in a substantially channel shape, and defines a substantially prismatic space extending vertically when the lid 28 is attached. The space accommodates the elevating arm 20 and moves the elevating arm 20 up and down. It functions as a guide hole 31 at the time. Similarly, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the lower half 26 has a case 27 formed in a substantially channel shape in this portion, and a rectangular substantially prismatic shape when the lid 29 is attached. The lift arm 20 is accommodated in the space, and the space functions as a guide hole 32 when the lift arm 20 moves up and down. The guide holes 32 are formed such that the thickness of the front and rear walls of the case body 27 is greater than the thickness of the front and rear walls of the upper half 25, and the guide holes 31 have a rectangular shape in the upper half 25. Therefore, only the front and rear opening diameters are shortened to form a substantially square opening shape.

As shown in FIG. 8, in the elevating operation part 22, the dimension of the case body 27 is formed larger than the upper half part 25 and the lower half part 26 in both front and rear and right and left directions. The left opening is covered with the lid 30 as described above, and the right opening is covered with another substantially plate-shaped lid 33 as described above.

Further, in the elevating operation part 22, the inner space of the case body 27 is divided into a left chamber 35 and a right chamber 36 by a partition wall 34, and a lid 30 is provided at the center of the elevating operation part 22.
A rotating shaft 37 that penetrates through the intermediate wall 34 and is supported by them extends in the left-right direction in a rotatable state. The right chamber 36 is formed such that the width on the left and right is narrower than the left chamber 36 and the front and rear depths are about twice as large. Accordingly, the case body 27 corresponding to the right chamber 36 is formed. The rear end wall has a greater amount of rearward projection than the rear end wall corresponding to the left chamber 36.

An operation handle 38 is attached to the left end of the rotary shaft 37 protruding from the lid 30 to the outside, and a pinion gear 39 is fixed to an intermediate portion located in the left chamber 35. The friction disk 40 is fixed to the right end located at the position. The friction disk 40 includes a friction pad 4 attached to the right surface of the partition wall 34.
The rotation shaft 37 is kept in contact with the surfaces of the friction disc 40 and the friction pads 41, 41 so that the rotation shaft 37 does not rotate unless a certain force or more is applied to the operation handle 38. Has become. The pinion gear 39 meshes with a rack formed in the lower half of the elevating arm 20 described later.

Further, the stopper 2 at the upper end of the main arm 19
In FIG. 3, as shown in FIG. 4, a cap body 42 made of a synthetic resin is externally fitted and fixed to upper end portions of the case body 27 and the lid body 28. The cap body 42 has a substantially rectangular cylindrical shape whose upper end is closed by an upper end wall 43 and whose lower part is opened, and a lower half 44 of which is externally fitted to the upper end of the main arm 19 and has a screw (not shown). It is fixed to the main arm 19 by an appropriate method such as a stop. Also, the cap body 4
At the center of the upper end wall 43, a square hole 45 having substantially the same shape and opening diameter as the cross-sectional shape of the upper half of the lifting arm 20 described later is formed.

In the upper half portion 46 of the cap body 42, a space is formed above the upper ends of the case body 27 and the lid body 28 by the peripheral wall and the upper end wall 43 of the cap body 42. And, as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG.
A guide shaft 47 is screwed into substantially the center of the upper half portion 46, and one end (left end) protrudes to the left outside the cap body 42, and the other end protrudes inside the cap body 42. An operation lever 48 is externally fitted and fixed to one end of the guide shaft 47 protruding outward from the cap body 42, and a stopper member 4 is attached to the other end protruding inward of the cap body 42.
9 is fitted and fixed externally. Therefore, the operation lever 4
9 is rotated counterclockwise about 45 degrees from the position shown in FIG. 9 (the position of the operation lever 48 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3), and the guide screwed to the cap body 42 is rotated. The entire shaft 47 is slightly displaced to the left, and the stopper member 49 is moved.
9 also moves in the direction of the arrow (to the left) in FIG. 9 and is pressed against the elevating arm 20 so that the position of the elevating arm 20 can be fixed to the current position by the frictional force between the elevating arm 20 and the stopper member 49 at this time. It has become. A stopper pin 50 is buried in the cap body 42 and partially protrudes leftward. When the operation lever 48 is rotated by a predetermined angle, the stopper pin 50 comes into contact with the rib 51 of the operation lever 48. By rotating the cap body 42 and the guide shaft 47 more than necessary, the screw engagement between the cap body 42 and the guide shaft 47 is prevented.

As shown in FIG. 4, the lifting arm 20 comprises an upper half 52 and a lower half 53 whose front and rear widths are made only about half as large as the upper half 52. At the upper end of 52, a slightly thick disk-shaped finder connecting portion 24 having a screw hole in the center is formed integrally, and a long hole 54 extending vertically is formed. A rack 55 is formed. A boundary portion 52a between the upper half portion 52 and the lower half portion 53 is slightly thicker than the outer diameter of the upper half portion 52 and is formed in a substantially flange shape.
The inner diameter of the upper half 25, which is the guide hole 31 of the main arm 19, is almost the same as the inner diameter of the upper arm 25.
To guide the elevating operation.

The lifting arm 20 is arranged with respect to the main arm 19 as shown in FIG. That is, the guide shaft 4 of the stopper 23 is provided in the elongated hole 54 of the upper half 50.
7, the guide shaft 47 relatively slides in the long hole 54 with the elevating operation of the elevating arm 20, and the elevating arm 2
The ascent / descent operation of 0 is also guided by this. The rack 55 of the lower half 53 is provided with the main arm 19.
And the pinion gear 39 at the lifting operation section 22. Therefore, when the operation handle 38 is rotated, the rotation movement of the pinion gear 39 is converted into vertical movement by the rack 55 meshed with the operation handle 38, and the lifting arm 20 is moved upward or downward in accordance with the rotation direction of the operation handle 38. The entire lower half of the lift arm 20 is moved downward.
2 is fed or returned from the square hole 45 of the cap body 42 of the main arm 19, so that the entire length of the finder support member 18 changes.

The finder connecting portion 24 of the lifting arm 20
Is a viewfinder 12 as shown in FIGS.
Of the inner cylinder 16 is screwed to a fixing ring 56 fitted and fixed to the rear end of the inner cylinder 16 and is rotatably attached. Can be turned around the turning fulcrum.

Further, at a position slightly closer to the front of the lower end of the main arm 19, the rotation fulcrum 21 is formed as described above. That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the rotation fulcrum 21 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape that is integrally formed so as to protrude rightward from a position closer to the front of the lower end of the case body 27 and that is open on both the left and right sides. It comprises a support cylinder 57, a support shaft 58 fitted inside the support cylinder 57, and supporting the entire finder support member 18 in a rotatable state.

The right end of the support shaft 58 penetrates from the left through the rear end of a support plate 59 whose front end is fixed to the rear end of the non-movable portion 11b of the platform 11 of the tripod 10, and the nut 60 extends from the right.
Is fixed to the tripod 10 by being screwed.
Bearings 61, 61 are fitted inside the support cylinder 57, and the support shaft 58 is mounted on the bearings 61, 61 in the support cylinder 57.
And a fixing nut 62 is screwed into the left end of the support shaft 58 projecting leftward from the left end of the support cylinder 57 to prevent it from falling off. Thereby, the finder support member 18
Is fixed to the tripod 10 via the support plate 59 and the lower end thereof is rotatably supported.

As described above, the finder support member 18 is
Since the lower end is attached to the non-movable portion 11b of the camera platform 11 at the pivot point 21 without being attached to the main body 2 of the ENG camera 1, the posture accompanying the tilt operation of the ENG camera 1 during photographing. The displacement of the position due to the change is transmitted only to the finder support member 18 from the finder connecting portion 24 on the upper portion of the finder support member 18 and is separated from the movement of the movable portion of the camera platform 11 of the tripod 10. The position of the eyepiece 13 of the viewfinder 12 is minimized by moving the finder support member 18 only around the rotation fulcrum 21 without moving the position of the eyepiece 21. It has become.

Therefore, the tilt mechanism of the camera platform 11 of the tripod 10 is operated to move the entire ENG camera 1 from the horizontal state shown in FIG. 1 to the state in which the imaging lens 3 shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. When the camera is tilted, the change in the posture of the ENG camera 1 is transmitted to the viewfinder support member 18 via the viewfinder 12 and the viewfinder connecting portion 24, and the viewfinder support member 18 rotates forward or backward about the rotation support portion 21. Let me do. At this time, the position of the eyepiece 13 of the viewfinder 12 is too low or too high for the photographer to look into, and it is inconvenient to continue photographing as it is. Therefore, by operating the operation handle 38 and rotating it to extend and retract the elevating arm 20 up and down, the overall length of the finder support member 18 is adjusted, and the position of the finder connecting portion 24 is changed up and down. Since the viewfinder 12 rotates upward or downward about the fulcrum section 12, the viewfinder 12 can be in an optimal state for viewing the eyepiece section 13 from behind the ENG camera 1. The position of the eyepiece 13 in the front-back direction can be adjusted by adjusting the length of the lens barrel 14 including the outer cylinder 15 and the inner cylinder 16 of the viewfinder 12.

As described above, the lifting arm 20
As described above, the rotation shaft 37 to which the pinion gear 39 is fixed is connected to the friction disc 40 and the friction pads 41 and 4.
Due to the frictional resistance between the first and second motors, the motor will not rotate unless a certain force is applied. For this reason, usually, the lifting arm 20 and the viewfinder 1 connected thereto are usually used.
Since the lifting arm 20 does not descend only depending on the weight of 2, the lifting arm 20 can be immediately stopped at any position when the operating handle 38 is operated to move the lifting arm 20 up and down. It is possible to finely adjust the fine position of the height of the position of the eyepiece unit 13 for adjustment.

Further, by using the stopper member 49 in the stopper portion 23 and the press-fitting of the stopper member 49 to the elevating arm 20, it is possible to more firmly maintain the position of the elevating arm 20 as it is.

[0033]

As is apparent from the above description, the image pickup apparatus according to the present invention is the same as that of the first embodiment, except that the image pickup apparatus is provided with a finder support member which can be adjusted to an arbitrary length by expansion and contraction. Support the viewfinder,
The position of the eyepiece is adjusted by expanding and contracting the finder support member, so when using the imaging device fixed on a support device such as a tripod, the eyepiece is optimal regardless of the orientation of the imaging device. It can be adjusted to come to any position.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the finder support member has a finder connecting portion at one end and a rotation fulcrum at the other end, and connects the finder connecting portion to the view finder. Since the fulcrum is attached to the supporting device that supports the entire imaging device, the finder support member is less likely to be affected by a change in the attitude of the imaging device.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the finder support member is provided at a position other than the movable portion whose angle is changed in order to change the photographing direction of the imaging device of the support device. The finder support member is not affected by the movement of the movable portion of the support device.

Further, in the invention described in claim 4 and claim 5, the finder support member is rotatably attached to the view finder at the finder connecting portion, and the fulcrum support portion. In this case, since the image pickup device is rotatably attached to the support device, the finder support member does not adversely affect the operation of changing the posture when the image pickup device changes its posture during photographing.

It should be noted that the specific shapes and structures shown in the above-described embodiments are merely examples of the embodiment for carrying out the present invention, and the technical scope of the present invention is limited thereby. Should not be interpreted as

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a state in which an image pickup apparatus of the present invention is used by being attached to a tripod.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a state when the imaging device is tilted downward.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a state when the imaging device is tilted upward.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view showing a finder support member.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line VV in FIG.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line VI-VI in FIG.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line VII-VII in FIG.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line VIII-VIII in FIG.

FIG. 9 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line IX-IX in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image pick-up device, 12 ... View finder, 13 ... Eyepiece, 18 ... Finder support member, 21 ... Rotation fulcrum part, 2
4: Finder connection

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An imaging apparatus having a viewfinder in which the position of an eyepiece is adjustable, wherein the viewfinder is supported by a finder support member which can be adjusted to an arbitrary length by expansion and contraction. An imaging apparatus, wherein the position of an eyepiece is adjusted by expanding and contracting the finder support member. 2. A viewfinder supporting member having a finder connecting portion formed at one end and a turning fulcrum at the other end, wherein the finder connecting portion is attached to a view finder, and the turning fulcrum is imaged. The imaging device according to claim 1, wherein the imaging device is attached to a support device that supports the entire device. 3. The finder supporting member is attached to a portion other than a movable portion whose angle is changed in order to change a photographing direction of an imaging device of the supporting device. An imaging device according to any one of the preceding claims. 4. The finder support member is rotatably attached to a viewfinder at a finder connecting portion, and is also rotatably attached to a support device at a pivot point. The imaging device according to claim 2, wherein: 5. The finder support member is rotatably attached to a viewfinder at a finder connecting portion, and is also rotatably attached to a support device at a pivot point. The imaging device according to claim 3, wherein: