Patent ID: 6570718
Filing Date: 2003-05-27
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
A zoom lens barrel comprising:a cam barrel driven to rotate about an optical axis; bottomed cam grooves formed on an inner peripheral surface of said cam barrel; a lens frame guided in an optical axis direction of said zoom lens barrel; cam followers which project radially from said lens frame to be respectively engaged with said bottomed cam grooves; and resilient supports which respectively support said cam followers, each of said resilient supports being resiliently deformable in a radial direction, a resilient bias of each of said resilient supports causing each of said cam followers to be biased against each of said bottomed cam grooves; wherein each of said bottomed cam grooves comprises: a zoom section for moving said lens frame between a telephoto position and a wide-angle position thereof in said optical axis direction in accordance with a rotational movement of said cam barrel; and an accommodation section for moving said lens frame to an accommodation position thereof; wherein a photographic operation is not performed; wherein each of said bottomed cam grooves is formed so that a depth of said accommodation section is greater than a depth of said zoom section in said radial direction of said cam barrel; wherein said resilient bias of each of said resilient supports causes each of said cam followers to be biased against each of said bottomed cam grooves wherein said cam followers are respectively fitted in said bottomed cam grooves so that no play exists when each of said bottomed cam grooves is positioned in said zoom section, and wherein each of said resilient supports is free from being elastically deformed in said radial direction so that said cam followers are respectively inserted in said bottomed cam grooves with a predetermined amount of play when each of said bottomed cam grooves is positioned in said accommodation section.