Camera with belt clip movable to ready an electronic device such as an electronic flash

Reference is made to commonly-assigned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/808,845, filed concurrently herewith, entitled BELT CLIP MOVABLE TO READY AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE SUCH AS AN ELECTRONIC FLASH, by Stiehler et al.

The invention relates generally to the field of photography, and in particular to cameras. More specifically, the invention relates to a camera including an electronic device such as an electronic flash that needs electrical energy to be able to operate and has a power switch such as a flash charge switch capable of being changed from a normal state to a working state in order to provide electrical energy to the device, and an activating member supported to be manually moved to change the power switch from its normal to working state.

Film and cameras that are all in one, commonly referred to as disposable single-use or one-time-use cameras, have become well known. The one-time-use camera is a simple point-and-shoot type camera comprising an opaque plastic main body part that supports a conventional film cartridge in a cartridge receiving chamber, an unexposed film roll prewound from the film cartridge onto a film supply spool in a film supply chamber, a fixed-focus taking lens, a film metering mechanism with a rotatably supported metering sprocket that engages the filmstrip, a manually rotatable film winding thumbwheel rotatably engaged with a film winding or take-up spool inside the film cartridge, a single-blade shutter, a manually depressible shutter release button, an exposure counter wheel that has a numerical series of evenly spaced exposure count indicia and is incrementally rotated to successively view the exposure count indicia, an anti-backup pawl that engages the exposure counter wheel to prevent its reverse rotation, a direct see-through viewfinder having front and rear viewfinder lenses, and in most models an electronic flash. A pair of opaque plastic front and rear cover parts house the main body part between them to complete the camera. The rear cover part connects to the main body part and/or to the front cover part to make the main body part light-tight. A decorative cardboard outer box or label at least partially covers the front and rear cover parts and has respective openings for the taking lens, etc.

After each picture is taken with the one-time-use camera, the photographer manually rotates the thumbwheel in a film winding direction to similarly rotate the film winding spool inside the film cartridge. This winds an exposed frame of the filmstrip from a rear backframe opening in the main body part into the film cartridge and advances an unexposed frame of the filmstrip from the unexposed film roll to the rear backframe opening. The rewinding movement of the filmstrip the equivalent of slightly more than one frame width rotates the metering sprocket in engagement with the filmstrip to decrement the exposure counter wheel to its next lower-numbered indicia and to pivot a metering lever into engagement with the thumbwheel in order to prevent further manual rotation of the thumbwheel in the film winding direction. Manually depressing the shutter release button to take another picture pivots the metering lever out of engagement with the thumbwheel to permit renewed rotation of the thumbwheel in the film winding direction. When the maximum number of exposures available on the filmstrip have been made, and the filmstrip is completely wound into the film cartridge, the one-time-use camera is given to a photofinisher who separates the rear cover part from the main body part and removes the film cartridge with the exposed filmstrip from the cartridge receiving chamber. Then, he removes the exposed filmstrip from the film cartridge to develop the latent images and make prints for the customer.

Prior Art Problem

The electronic flash is mounted on the main body part between the front and rear cover parts and includes a flash circuit board with a normally open flash charge switch. The flash charge switch consists of one or two fixed switch contacts and a movable switch element that is moved against the one or two fixed switch contacts to close the flash charge switch in order to charge the electronic flash for use. See prior art U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,943 issued Oct. 15, 1996, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,521 issued Aug. 24, 1999, each of which is incorporated in this application. Various activating members are provided to be manually moved to move the movable switch element to close the flash charge switch. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,943 discloses a lever that is manually pivotable from a folded position to an erected position on the front cover part to move the movable switch element. An improvement from the standpoint of consolidating parts is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,521 in that a protective lens cover is supported to be manually pivoted when open to move the movable switch element.

Often it is desirable to include an accessory belt clip with the camera, but this would be in addition to the activating member for manually moving the movable switch element to close the flash charge switch

According to one aspect of the invention, a camera comprising a particular device such as an electronic flash that needs electrical energy to be able to operate and has a power switch capable of being changed from a normal state to a working state in order to provide electrical energy to the device, and an activating member supported to be manually moved to change the power switch from its normal to working state, is characterized in that:

the activating member is a belt clip constructed to be placed on and removed from one's belt and supported to be pivoted against the power switch to change the power switch from its normal to working state as the belt clip is removed from one's belt, whereby when the belt clip is removed from one's belt the device will be made ready to operate.

According to another aspect of the invention, a method in a camera of changing a power switch from a normal state to a working state in order to provide electrical energy to a particular device that needs electrical energy to be able to operate, comprises the steps of:

pivoting a belt clip for the camera, which is constructed to be placed on and removed from one's belt away from the camera, to permit one's belt to be removed from between the belt clip and the camera, and simultaneously pivoting the belt clip against the power switch to change the power switch from its normal to working state, whereby when one's belt is removed from between the belt clip and the camera the device will be made ready to operate.

According to another aspect of the invention, a method of assembling a belt clip to a camera to allow the belt clip to change a power switch in the camera from a normal state to a working state in order to provide electrical energy to a particular device in the camera that needs electrical energy to be able to operate, comprises the steps of:

pivotally connecting the belt clip to the camera at an intermediate portion of the belt clip between a clip portion of the belt clip and an actuating portion of the belt clip, to cause the clip portion to be pivoted away from the camera as one's belt is removed from between the clip portion and the camera and to simultaneously cause the actuating portion to be pivoted against the power switch to change the power switch from its normal to working state; and

resiliently engaging the belt clip with the camera to cause the clip portion to be urged towards the camera and the actuating portion to be urged away from the power switch.

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a camera and a belt clip pursuant to a preferred embodiment of the invention, showing the belt clip separated from the camera for clarity of illustration;

FIG. 2 is a front elevation view of the camera and the belt clip, showing the belt clip connected to the camera;

FIG. 3 is a full cross-section view of the camera and the belt clip as seen in the direction of the line-connected arrows 3 , 3 in FIG. 2, showing the belt clip connected to the camera;

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-section view of the camera and the belt clip, showing the belt clip separated from the camera;

FIG. 5 is a partial cross-section view of the camera and the belt clip, showing the belt clip connected to the camera;

FIG. 6 is a partial cross-section view similar to FIG. 5, showing the belt clip pivoted to close a power switch.

The invention is disclosed as being embodied preferably in a disposable one-time-use flash camera with a built-in electronic flash. Because the features of a one-time-use flash camera with a built-in electronic flash are generally known, the description which follows is directed in particular only to those elements forming part of or cooperating directly with the disclosed embodiment. It is to be understood, however, that other elements may take various forms known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 1-6 show a disposable one-time-use camera 10 including a plastic opaque interior main body part 12 , a plastic opaque exterior front cover part 14 , and a plastic opaque exterior rear cover part 16 . The front cover part 14 and the rear cover part 16 house the main body part 12 between them and are connected releasably to one another and to the main body part via known hook-in-hole connections.

As is typical, the main body part 12 has a rearwardly open cartridge receiving chamber 18 for a conventional film cartridge 20 and a rearwardly open film supply or film roll chamber 22 . See FIG. 3 . During manufacture, a filmstrip 24 is prewound from the film cartridge 20 into an unexposed film roll 26 on a film supply spool 28 which is placed in the film supply chamber 22 . A rearwardly open backframe opening 30 is located between the cartridge receiving chamber 18 and the film supply chamber 22 for exposing successive frames of the filmstrip 24 when ambient light is received through a front taking lens 32 on the main body part 12 .

A known optical viewfinder 34 is mounted on top of the main body part 12 and has a pair of optically aligned front and rear viewfinder lenses for viewing a subject to be photographed. See FIGS. 1 and 2.

A film winding thumbwheel (not shown), rotatably supported on top of the main body part 12 , above the cartridge receiving chamber 18 , radially protrudes partially from an elongate narrow opening (not shown) in the rear cover part 16 and has a depending coaxial stem (not shown) in coaxial engagement with an exposed top end (not shown) of a film take-up spool 36 inside the film cartridge 20 . The film winding thumbwheel has a continuous alternating series of peripheral-edge symmetrical teeth that readily permit the thumbwheel to be manually grasped or fingered to incrementally rotate the thumbwheel in a film winding direction, i.e. counter-clockwise in FIG. 3, to similarly rotate the film take-up spool 36 inside the film cartridge 20 . This is done in order to wind an exposed frame of the filmstrip 24 from the backframe opening 30 into the film cartridge 20 after each film exposure, and to move a fresh frame of the filmstrip from the unexposed film roll 26 to the backframe opening. Each time the filmstrip 24 is advanced slightly greater than a frame width, a known metering lever or other known metering device (not shown) engages one of the teeth of the film winding thumbwheel to prevent rotation of the thumbwheel. The metering lever is disengaged from one of the teeth as an incident of each film exposure.

When the filmstrip 24 is wound completely into the film cartridge 20 , a rear or bottom portion of the rear cover part 16 which at least partially covers the cartridge receiving chamber 18 is disengaged from the main body part 12 to permit the film cartridge to be removed from the cartridge receiving chamber.

A built-in known electronic flash 38 is mounted on the main body part 12 in the vicinity of the film supply chamber 22 . See FIGS. 3-6. The electronic flash unit 38 includes a flat flash circuit board 40 with a manually depressible (movable) dome-shaped switch-closing element 42 and a single fixed contact pad 44 spaced slightly beneath the switch-closing element. A circular periphery of the switch-closing element 42 and the whole contact pad 44 are soldered on the flash circuit board 40 . The switch-closing element 42 is deformable to permit it be manually depressed (moved) against the contact pad 44 , and it is resilient to recover an original shape separated from the contact pad. See FIGS. 6 and 5. The switch-closing element 42 and the contact pad 44 constitute a normally biased-open flash charge switch 46 which when closed by temporarily deforming the switch-closing element against the contact pad permits a main capacitor (not shown) on the flash circuit board 40 to be charged.

When the normally open flash charge switch 46 is closed by temporarily deforming (moving) the switch-closing element 42 against the contact pad 44 , a high-frequency oscillator (not shown) on the flash circuit board 40 converts the dc voltage from a battery 48 to an ac voltage that is stepped up in a transformer (not shown) on the flash circuit board. This high voltage is rectified by a rectifier (not shown) on the flash circuit board 40 back to dc and stored in the main capacitor. The oscillator, the rectifier, the transformer, and the battery 48 constitute a known flash charging circuit that is activated when the flash charge switch 46 is closed. A known monitoring circuit (not shown) on the flash circuit board 40 ignites a flash ready light (not shown) when the stored voltage in the main capacitor approaches a peak capacity.

A belt clip 50 has a clip portion 52 facing the rear cover part 16 to hold one's belt 54 between the clip portion and the rear cover part 16 as in FIG. 3, an actuating portion 56 for closing the normally open flash charge switch 46 by temporarily deforming (moving) the switch-closing element 42 against the contact pad 44 as in FIG. 6, and an intermediate portion 58 between the clip and actuating portions. See FIGS. 3-6. The intermediate portion 58 is curved approximately 180° to extend around respective common ends 60 and 62 of the front and rear cover parts 14 and 16 , is dimensioned to fit partially within a curved opening 64 in the end 60 of the front cover part, has a concavity 66 in which a fixed fulcrum 68 on the main body part resides to pivotally support the belt clip at its intermediate portion, has a resilient cantilever 70 with a single-hook end 72 that engages two parallel identical projections 74 on the main body part to normally urge (bias) the clip portion towards the rear cover part and to simultaneously urge (bias) the actuating portion 56 away from the switch-closing element 42 . When the clip portion 52 is placed on or removed from one's belt 54 , that is, when one's belt is received between or removed from between the clip portion and the rear cover part 16 , the clip portion is momentarily pivoted away from the rear cover part, in a clockwise direction in FIG. 6 about the fixed fulcrum 68 , slightly deforming the resilient cantilever 70 , and pivoting the actuating portion 56 in the same direction. The actuating portion 56 then closes the normally open flash charge switch 46 by temporarily deforming (moving) the switch-closing element 42 against the contact pad 44 . Thus, when the belt clip 50 is removed from one's belt 54 , the electronic flash 38 is ready to be used because its main capacitor will be charged.

The actuating portion 56 includes a manually depressible portion in the form of a ribbed finger grip 76 at the opening 64 in the front cover part 14 , which can be manually depressed to optionally pivot the actuating portion 56 in a clockwise direction in FIG. 6 . The actuating portion 56 then closes the normally open flash charge switch 46 by temporarily deforming (moving) the switch-closing element 44 against the contact pad 44 .

To assemble the belt clip 50 to the camera 10 , the concavity 66 is placed onto the fixed fulcrum 68 and the single-hook end 72 is engaged with the two projections 74 . See FIGS. 5 and 6. This locates the clip portion 52 facing the rear cover part 16 and the actuating portion 56 inward of the opening 64 and close to the switch-closing element 42 .

The invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment. However, it will be appreciated that variations and modifications can be effected by a person of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the switch-closing element 42 that is manually depressed against the contact pad 44 to close the normally open flash charge switch 46 could be located on the belt clip 50 in place of the actuating portion 56 . In this instance, as in the preferred embodiment, the switch closing element 42 would have to be conductively connected to the flash circuit board 40

10 . one-time-use camera

12 . main body part

14 . front cover part

16 . rear cover part

18 . cartridge receiving chamber

20 . film cartridge

22 . film supply or film roll chamber

24 . filmstrip

26 . unexposed film roll

28 . film supply spool

30 . backframe opening

32 . front taking lens

34 . viewfinder

36 . film take-up spool

38 . electronic flash

40 . flash circuit board

42 . movable switch-closing element

44 . fixed contact pad

46 . flash charge switch

48 . battery

50 . belt clip

52 . clip portion

54 . one's belt

56 . actuating portion

58 . intermediate portion

60 . end

62 . end

64 . curved opening

66 . concavity

68 . fixed fulcrum

70 . resilient cantilever

72 . single-hook end

74 , 74 . projections

76 . manually depressible portion/ribbed finger grip